The Ultimate Hero
by moonymonster
Summary: What would have happened to Danny if, at the end of TUE, Clockwork had not interfered and let Danny's family die? How would Danny have attempted to stop the reappearance of Phantom, and how would that change his life forever? Cowritten with Laryna6.
1. Prologue

**The Ultimate Hero**

_By **Marisa Mockery** and **Laryna6**_

_Please note: this is a story about what would have happened had Clockwork not saved Danny's family at the end of _The Ultimate Enemy. _Therefore, any new characters introduced, changes in character relationships, or changes in character personalities after_ The Ultimate Enemy _(Episode Five, Season Two) are null and void, since in this story they don't exist (or at least haven't been found yet). Please remember this for continuality._

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

**_Part One: Beginning_**

— — — — — —— — — — — — — — — — — —

**Prologue**

"_Your time is up, Danny. It's been up for ten years."_

- - -

Danny slammed into the ground, grunting with the impact, too hurt to even open his eyes.

"What makes you think you can change my past?" taunted his future counterpart. Danny shoved himself onto his hands and knees, trembling from the effort.

"Because I _promised_ my _family_!"

"Ha!" the phantom exclaimed, and chuckled. "You are such a _child_. You _promised_?"

"_Yes!"_ Danny roared. **_"I PROMISED!"_**

A wave of power burst from the boy, and a high keening wail filled the air. The phantom didn't even have time to think before Danny's Ghostly Wail knocked him off his feet and he flew high, crashing into the pavement twenty feet away.

"That power!" he gasped. "It's not possible! I don't get that power until ten years from now…"

Danny stood up and put his hand on his side, wincing slightly. "I guess," he panted, "the future…isn't as set in stone as you think it is."

With that he howled again, this time blowing the ghost all the way into a four-story building a block away. The building collapsed with a CRASH, and Danny fell to his hands and knees, phasing into his human form as he tried to recover from the massive drain on his powers.

A hand shot out of the rubble.

Danny's head jerked up.

His future counterpart burst out of the gravel, growling and injured.

"Well, that's it, isn't it?" he began.

"_Time's up,"_ Danny snarled. He grabbed the Fenton Thermos and activated it. A blue ray shot out of the cylinder and dragged at the ragged ghost, who struggled against the pull desperately.

"Too weak to escape," he gasped as he fought. "But you're too weak to save them…"

With a scream the phantom disappeared into the thermos. Danny slammed the lid shut. He smiled, for a moment enjoying his victory…

…before remembering his family and friends (and Mr. Lancer) were all still strapped to the tanks in the Nasty Burger, set to explode.

"Oh no…"

He turned.

The tanks turned red.

He began to run, but couldn't move fast enough. He felt his power gather around his waist—and fizzle out.

"I can't go ghost!" he cried. He tried to run faster, but tripped on a rock, landing face first on the cracked pavement. **_"NOOOOOO!"_**

He stared into his family and friends' eyes, and they stared back. Sweat poured down his face.

The Nasty Burger exploded, the fire reflecting in his glassy blue eyes.

He flew backward, and his world grew black—

- - -

He woke up feeling fuzzy, like he was in a dream.

"It's been two days," worried a familiar voice. "Why hasn't he woken up yet?"

"Honey, he was practically at ground zero," answered a second familiar voice. Male. "Give him time. Besides, we still need to figure out what to tell him when he wakes up."

_Tell me what…?_ he wondered, and cracked open an eye. Everything was blurry and soft around the edges, but he could see.

"I know…he'll be in such a delicate state…how could…"

Danny cracked open the other eye and squinted at the speaker.

_That's Mrs. Foley,_ he thought drowsily. Mr. Foley stepped into his vision, and both of them stopped talking when they realized he was staring at them.

"Danny! You're awake!" Mrs. Foley swooped down, and Danny found himself in a fierce hug. He felt wetness on his cheek, and blinked.

"Mmm…a…awake?" he mumbled. "Wh…" Danny tried to gather his thoughts. "Wh…what's goin'…on? Where's Mom an'…and Dad?"

He felt Mrs. Foley stiffen a bit, then let go. He looked at her face, and saw her eyes tear.

"Sweetie…"

"Don't tell him yet," hissed Mr. Foley. "He just—"

"Tell me what?"

Neither parent responded.

"_Tell me what?"_

But he knew.

"All…all of them, huh?" he whispered, his voice devoid of all emotion. "I…didn't save them, did I?" _Why is the world spinning?_ he thought dizzily. _It's supposed to stay still, I know it is…_

"Danny…"

"They're all dead…just like he said…all…"

And when the black took him, he welcomed it.


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

"_To save the future, Danny Phantom must perish."_

_- - - _

The next few days blurred into one another, moving too fast for Danny to keep up.

The hospital released him three days after he woke up. The Foleys took him in, letting him use the guest room. He rarely left it.

This couldn't have happened. Not after everything he'd done to stop it. Not after everything he'd gone through. Not after going into the future, surviving the Ghost Zone, fighting his evil alternate future self…

Some newspaper and TV reporters came to interview him, but he didn't respond to their questions, and after taking some photos they left.

He didn't know what they wrote in the paper about the accident. He didn't look.

Mr. and Mrs. Foley tried to get him to talk, but he didn't respond to them either. He didn't want to think about the accident—maybe if he never spoke of it, if he pretended it never happened, everything would go back to normal, and he'd wake up from this nightmare…

"Danny?"

Danny blinked and rolled over, releasing his unconscious hold on a framed picture. He stared at the door, trying to remember—oh, yes, he was in the guestroom at Tucker's. That was Mrs. Foley knocking on the door.

"Danny?" repeated the woman. "There's someone here to see you."

"Who is it?" he asked.

"Paulina," answered an accented voice. Danny blinked again.

"Paulina?" He got up and opened the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see you, silly!" she giggled. Then her face grew serious. "I'm sorry about your family."

"Oh." He stared at the floor. He didn't want to think about that.

"I'll come back when you need me, kids," said Mrs. Foley, and left. Paulina pushed the door all the way open and walked into the room.

"So, how are you doing?" asked Paulina. Danny gave her a blank look, and she turned her eyes down, abashed. "Sorry."

"S'okay," he muttered, and sat back down on the bed. Paulina sat down next to him, and leaned her head on his shoulder. _What I would have given for this,_ Danny thought sardonically.

"So, uh, Danny," she began, taking his hands. "Do you want to…talk about anything?"

"No."

She looked startled at his abrupt answer. "Nothing at all? I know you didn't tell the reporters nothing, but you can tell _me_…"

"…What?"

"About what happened at the Nasty Burger! I heard there was a fight—"

"You came…to find out...what happened…at the Nasty Burger?" He drew the words out slowly, trying to comprehend them.

"Well, not if you don't want to," Paulina blundered, "but if you want to tell me anything, then—"

He stared at her, mouth open. Then he swallowed, and shook his hands free.

"Get out."

She blinked. "What?"

"I said, get out. _Now_." For a moment his eyes flashed green.

"Danny?"

He shoved her off him. "Just leave. Now."

"But—"

"I said LEAVE!" he snarled, his eyes glowing momentarily again.

She glared at him, fortunately not noticing the change. "Fine! See if I ever talk to _you_ again, Danny Fenton!"

With that she stomped off, slamming the door behind her.

Danny's hands found the framed picture, but he didn't look at it.

_You can't judge a book by its cover, _Sam had said once.

He realized what she meant now.

- - -

The days blurred, and he couldn't keep up.

His aunt came a day after Paulina visited. She told him he'd move in with her in Spittoon after the funeral. Danny couldn't bring himself to care.

At least he wasn't going to Vlad's. That awful future could never happen if he lived in the middle of Arkansas.

The adults got together to plan the funeral, mostly leaving Danny to himself. He spent a lot of time in the guestroom, thinking…knowing all of this was his fault. Knowing he could have stopped it somehow, if he'd only tried a little harder. Knowing he screwed up. Knowing he had let everyone he loved die.

He turned from the framed picture to his backpack, which had the thermos tucked away inside, duct tape wrapped around the lid to make sure it wouldn't open. Sometimes he heard noises coming from it, but he wrapped some clothing around it and muffled out the sounds.

He slept a lot. In his dreams, Clockwork saved his family in the end, and everyone was alive and happy.

He woke up hurting…and hating. The hate was one of the few emotions he let himself feel until he remembered how hate-filled the ghost in the thermos was. Then he suppressed everything.

The day of the funeral arrived.

He stood next to the graves as the preacher spoke, dazed. None of this felt real until he saw those solid shiny coffins, closed forever, holding the remains of his family. The remnants they could find after the explosion, anyway.

And when they were lowered into the ground, he didn't cry. He only stared, twisting the flowers in his hand into little pieces.

He didn't see Vlad Masters standing in the back, eyes red and puffy. He didn't see Vlad walk up to his aunt and speak with her, and didn't see her nod in agreement with whatever he was talking about. He didn't see them walk away, discussing where he would live.

- - -

Danny still felt numb at the wake. None of this was real. None of it…

"Danny?" A hand touched his shoulder. He turned.

"Valerie?" he asked stupidly. Valerie nodded. "What…"

"I came with my dad to the funeral. I…" she trailed off. "I'm sorry, Danny. Really sorry. I know how close you guys were."

Danny bit his lip. Somehow, those words battered harder at his carefully built fortress than anything else that happened so far.

"Danny…" she seemed at a loss. Then she gave a soft, sad smile. "I'm not too used to this. But if you…if you ever need someone, you can always come to me. You know that, right?"

He stared at her for a moment, then swallowed. "…Yeah. I…I know."

And suddenly he was crying. He tried to wipe the tears away, tried to regain control, but he couldn't stop. He felt Valerie's arms gather around him, and he sobbed into her shoulder.

Finally he stopped. Somehow Valerie came up with tissues, and he wiped off his face, embarrassed.

"I…I'm sorry…I don't…"

She only held him.

"Danny?"

It was his aunt. He released himself from Valerie's hold, wiped the remaining tears off his face, and turned.

And stared.

"Danny, this here's Vlad Masters," said Aunt Alicia, motioning to the white-haired man next to her. Danny's eyes flashed green.

"I know," he said with a curt nod. "What does _he_ want?"

Alicia blinked.

"It's the state he's in," Vlad said in a low voice. Alicia nodded wisely.

"Danny," she began, "Vlad here's offered to take you in. I know he'll provide a better home than I can out in Spittoon, so we decided you're gonna live with him."

Danny stared at her in shock. "I'm…what?" he croaked. Vlad looked both worried and victorious.

"You're going to live with me, Daniel," he repeated.

_With nowhere else to go, you came to me,_ Future-Vlad echoed in his mind. _The only person on the planet who could possibly understand your situation._

"I-I need some air," Danny gasped, and ran from the room, leaving the three bewildered people behind.

_All you wanted was to make the pain go away_, Future-Vlad continued mercilessly.

"No…"

_I honored your wishes…_

"SHUT UP!" Danny cried, but he couldn't stop the memory.

_No more painful, human emotions to drag you down._

"No," he whispered. "No. I won't. I promised."

_Sadly, that freed you up to rip the ghost out of me._

"No…"

_And when my evil ghost half mixed with yours, my evil side_ overwhelmed _you._

"NO!" he screamed suddenly, shoving the memories away. "_No!_ I won't become that! I won't! I promised!" He fell to his hands and knees. "I promised…"

"Danny!"

Danny heard footsteps behind him, and someone pulled him up. Aunt Alicia.

"Danny…"

Danny's throat constricted. He couldn't speak.

"It's the state he's in, Alicia," he heard Vlad say softly. "Give him time to recover."

- - -

The day after the funeral the Foleys took him to Fenton Works to pack up the rest of his things. However, before they arrived they drove past the Nasty Burger, which was starting to get rebuilt. The construction workers were already pouring concrete into the massive hole where the explosion had been.

"Wait a minute—stop," Danny said as they passed a "Nasty Burger 2 Coming Soon" sign. Mr. and Mrs. Foley blinked, but parked on the side of the road.

"What are you doing, Danny?" asked Mrs. Foley. Danny grabbed his backpack and jumped out of the car.

"I'll be right back," he answered, and ran across the street to the construction site. Mr. Foley made to follow him, but Mrs. Foley shook her head.

Ducking under the fence, he yanked out the thermos. A rattling laugh echoed inside.

"Yeah, laugh," hissed Danny. "You're still the one stuck in the thermos."

He carefully looked around. Thankfully all of the construction workers were on lunch, and the place was deserted. He knew he couldn't pull this off if there was someone to stop him.

He stepped up to the pit filled with liquid concrete. The thermos wiggled slightly in his hands, but he only held it tighter.

"Fitting burial place, isn't it?" he asked it, and chucked it as hard as he could into the concrete, shifting into ghost form to guide it and make sure it fell to the very bottom, into the ground itself. Then he flew out of the pit, shifted back into Danny Fenton, grabbed his backpack, and went back to the car.

"Okay, _now_ we can go," he said. As they drove away, he thought he heard a howl of rage, and gave a sick, tired grin.

- - -

"Here we are," said Mr. Foley, pulling to a stop at the curb. "Your house. Do you want us to come in with you?"

Danny said nothing.

The three got out of the car, and Danny entered the house, biting his lip. For a moment his vision swam, and he blinked away tears furiously, determined not to cry.

"Danny," said Mrs. Foley gently, "we can come back later if you want…"

"No…no, it's all right," he said, taking a deep breath. Mrs. Foley opened her mouth to argue, but Danny turned and went upstairs.

"It's better he do this now," said Mr. Foley quietly as he led his wife out of the house and back to the car. "He can say goodbye."

- - -

For some reason Danny went into Jazz's room first.

He looked at Bearbert lying on the neatly made bed. All of Jazz's journals were stacked in her bookcase, and the only things lying on the floor were her book bag, some pencils, and of all things, a ghost gun.

"I thought Jazz didn't even _like_ hunting ghosts," Danny said, picking the gun up. He shrugged and walked down the hall.

His room was the same way he left it, though it felt emptier than before. Maybe it was because he hadn't been in here in days…or maybe because no one else had, either.

He bit his lip and looked in the mirror above his bureau. The face that looked back was pale, with bags under its eyes, eyes that were sad and hopeless all at once.

Suddenly he saw his evil future self looking at him, a cruel grin on his face.

_You don't get it, do you? _the phantom gloated_. **I'm **still here. **I** still exist. That means_ **_you_** _still turn into_ **_me_**.

"NO!" Danny screamed. He whipped out Jazz's gun and pulled the trigger. The mirror burst into a thousand silver slivers, all dropping onto the bureau and around Danny's feet.

He could still hear the phantom laughing. He fired again, and again, and again, until the wall itself smoked, and he was pretty sure he could see the hall. Finally he relaxed his hold on the trigger, and collapsed onto his bed.

- - -

Finally Danny's feet took him down to the lab.

He looked around, and smiled a bit when he saw the Ghost Catcher and the other inventions that had given him such problems. The smile quickly faded when he realized no new inventions would be made. He remembered who made that possible.

Phantom.

Phantom, who gleefully killed his family. Phantom, who only gloated when he watched thousands of humans die and destroyed entire cities.

Phantom, who was created because Danny moved into Vlad's house and asked to have his emotions taken out.

Danny shuddered.

It was all Phantom's fault. Phantom…his ghost half without his human half. A deranged half-soul that lived only to kill.

His ghost half.

But in the future…his human half had been perfectly fine—well, not _fine_, but he hadn't been insane. It was the ghost half.

The ghost half…

What if…

What if he could…remove the ghost? Just be Danny Fenton, who _couldn't_ become Phantom because there would be no Phantom to become?

He looked at the ghost gun in his hand. A _ghost_ gun. Designed to kill _ghosts_.

No way. There was no way he could consider that.

And yet…

It was so easy. It _could_ be so easy. All he'd have to do was kill the ghost half, and then there would be no Phantom.

He felt dizzy. But…this could _work_. It was simple. Easy. All he had to do was pull the trigger, kill Danny Phantom…without Danny Phantom, there could be no evil future…

He lifted Jazz's gun and stared at it.

Easy.

Simple.

All he had to do was shoot.

- - -

Mr. Foley waited impatiently in the car, his fingers drilling on the steering wheel.

"I'm worried," he said suddenly. Mrs. Foley looked up. "He's been in there too long."

"Now, honey, I'm sure he's just…"

"I'm going to go check on him." Mr. Foley opened the door and got out of the car. Mrs. Foley hesitated a moment, then jumped out after him.

"Honey, we shouldn't—" she began, but Mr. Foley had already opened the front door and poked his head inside.

"Danny?" he called, eyes scanning the area.

Suddenly a loud shot rang through the house, echoing through the empty halls, making the couple jump.

"Where did that come from?" the man gasped, eyes widening.

"Danny!" cried Mrs. Foley. "_Danny!_ Danny, where are you? _Danny!_"

The woman ran to Danny's room first, trying to find the source of the sound, Mr. Foley behind her. All they found were the remains of Danny's bedroom mirror and a big hole in the wall.

Biting her lip, Mrs. Foley followed her husband downstairs, into the lab…

...Where blood pooled on the floor…

"No…" she whispered, and buried her face into her husband's chest.

- - -

That week there was another funeral, as Danny Fenton was put to rest with his family and friends. It was held on the day Danny would have flown out to live in Vlad's mansion.

_

* * *

This is Laryna6, moonymonster's 'collaborator' on this. Just reassuring you that no, this isn't the last chapter. There hasn't been nearly enough Vlad or Valerie, for one thing, and they're my favorites. Check back next week, same time, same place. Or put this on Story Alert. You know you want to._

_You also want to review._


	3. Chapter Two

_Marisa's note:_

_I should have posted this warning earlier, but if you haven't noticed this fanfic is dark and contains adult themes, angst, torture, suicide, ass kicking, plot-hole filling, butter biscuits, the Packers, dry and ironic humor, episode rewrites, and severe cliffhangers. And did I mention it's dark?  
_

— — — — — —

**Chapter Two**

"_You've returned to me."_

- - - 

Vlad Masters sat at his elegant, mahogany desk, head resting on his hand, staring into space.

Nothing. He had _nothing_.

When he received the news of Maddie's death, Vlad thought his heart would explode. The love of his life—the most beautiful, most wonderful, most _intelligent_ woman he'd ever met—was dead. Gone. He had searched for her, scored the Ghost Zone, looking for the slightest hint of his love, but there was nothing. She had, as the phrase went, moved on.

Vlad wasn't fool enough to believe in a heaven, and he certainly wouldn't believe in a hell. However, he knew there had to be _somewhere_ souls with finished business went. He knew his Maddie was there, but he couldn't reach her.

Eventually he had given up. Maddie was gone.

If only he had had more _time_! If he had been able to convince Maddie and Daniel to come with him instead of stay with that oaf Jack they wouldn't be dead. The loss of the daughter was regrettable, but it was they whom he wanted, and they who had left.

His one consolation had been the boy, Daniel. The son he and Maddie should have had, together, fourteen years ago. At least he could have raised the boy in his own home, begin to teach him how to _think_ instead of react (unlike his idiot father, who never thought at all) and watch him grow into a man that would make Maddie proud.

The news of Daniel's suicide two weeks ago was a second blow to Vlad's already shattered heart. Gaining control of the boy and his future had been the one thing that kept Vlad going after Maddie's death…control he would never have now.

Vlad couldn't help but think of how lost—how _horrified_—Daniel had looked when he was told he would live with Vlad instead of his aunt. Vlad had knocked it off as a natural reaction—but still…the boy should have known that he would at least get an education now—and not one in how to grow _rhubarb_, either.

Vlad sighed, staring at the photograph taken from the reunion. Jack's image had been torn out and burned long ago. Jack had not _deserved_ the boy or his mother—how could the two of them not realized it? There were some things even he had trouble understanding.

He also couldn't explain why Daniel's friends and mother were by the Nasty Burger when it exploded. He knew none of them—well, none but Jack—were stupid enough to go nearby that place. He needed to find out.

For now—well, for now he could fund more ghost research in Maddie's name, continue her work, and perhaps even use his other pawn to do it. Valerie's father, he recalled, was quite good with ghost weapons. And while he was there, he could find out what exactly happened at that explosion.

He would build a memorial at the site there too. The Nasty Burger chain might be planning to rebuild the restaurant there, but money did amazing things.

He looked at his watch. Right now the morning news would be on in Amity Park—well, why not? He needed to know what was going on there right now anyway, and his next meeting wasn't for another fifteen minutes. He twirled his chair around, pressed a few buttons, and in a moment a large painting lifted itself out of the way to reveal a huge plasma-screen TV. A little more button-pressing, and Amity Park's main news station was on.

"This is Tiffany Snow with Action News," said a redhead on the television. Vlad rolled his eyes and reached for the remote. He didn't feel the need to listen to Snow's idiotic broadcasts.

"It's just been reported that Casper High has been attacked by another ghost—all parents advised. However, Danny Phantom is on the scene—"

_What?_

"—who you can see on our live video feed," the girl continued blithely. Vlad's jaw dropped and his pulse quickened as he saw a rather familiar white-haired boy dodging Skulker's attacks over the large tan building.

But it couldn't be. Daniel was _dead!_

"It seems that the two ghosts are leaving the area, followed by a person in red—"

Well, maybe Daniel wasn't as dead as Vlad thought.

Vlad's finger found the intercom button. "Cancel all of my appointments for the next week," he ordered. His business associates could wait.

Vlad Masters had to go check on his newest investment, after all.


	4. Chapter Three

_Laryna6's note: The main character committing suicide is usually one of the warning signs of a bad fic, but we promise: Danny will not be emo. He will cheer up even if Valerie has to kill him. Again._

_Marisa: Nah, if Danny went emo I'd expect Vlad to interfere first and take away his Evanescence CDs. You can't emo without cliché emo music._

_Laryna6: Hey, I like Evanescence. _

_Marisa: Anyway, sorry for the lateness. I kinda forgot it was Friday. (Yes, I did. HUSH.)_

— — — — — —

**Chapter Three**

"_Thought I'd forgot about you, ghost?"_

- - -

"So, we're moving to Danny's old house?" Valerie stared at her father, shocked. Danny had only been dea—gone for two weeks, and then this?

"Well, Mr. Masters wants to hire me to develop ghost weapons and defenses, and the easiest place to do it is in Fenton Works." Her father scooped some clothing out of a bureau and packed them into a suitcase. Valerie simply continued staring in disbelief.

"But—but—it's—I don't want to live in Danny's house!" she burst out. How could she explain how sacrilegious it felt to live in her dead friend's home, in the place where he killed himself? How could she explain how creepy, how _wrong_ it was? She tried to think of the words, but could only pull up blanks.

"I know, sweetheart," her father said with a sigh. "But…we can redecorate the place—you won't even recognize it. And—"

"But that's…" She couldn't finish the sentence. _That's wrong_, she thought. _That's disgusting…disrespectful..._

"Valerie, Mr. Masters was very exact with his instructions. If we don't move, then I can't get the job." His face softened. "Sweetie, I don't like this either, but…it's better than living here. And the pay is _very_ good."

Valerie stared at her feet. Her father slowly turned away and continued to pack.

"Only if I get to test the ghost weapons," she said at last.

Her father blinked and looked at her. "What?"

"I'm only going if I can use the ghost weapons," Valerie repeated. "I've got two jobs. I can pay for this crummy apartment if I have to. I'll stay here if you don't let me hunt."

"Valerie, that's nonsense."

"I'll do it somehow!" she flared. "I won't just sit back and let those _ghosts_ get away with what they did! I'm sure that somehow that _ghost kid_ was involved in this, and—"

"_Valerie!"_

Valerie stopped.

"Valerie," her father said, "I know this has been hard on you. It's been hard for me too. But I can't allow you to do that. You're going to go to school and you're going to focus on your grades."

Valerie turned her back on him angrily.

Her father sighed. "But…"

"But?" Valerie asked eagerly, turning back to face him.

"_If_ you get straight As from now on, and do all of your homework and projects…" He paused to rub his forehead. "I'll let you hunt ghosts after school."

"Thank you, Daddy!" she cried, and hugged her father fiercely. He laughed a little bit and hugged her back.

"But we're still moving to Fenton Works," he said firmly. Valerie looked away.

"It…still feels wrong," she said slowly. "But…if we have to…"

"That's my girl."

Then slowly, hesitantly, she helped him pack.

- - -

_Tonight,_ Valerie thought as she got off the bus and walked through the front doors of Casper High, _I'll look for the ghost kid by the Nasty Burger. Maybe he'll be there._

Of course, her father would make sure she did all her homework first, but Valerie could take care of that during lunch, as usual. She no longer hung out with Paulina's posse, even though she had more than enough money to be popular again—her experience with poverty showed her exactly how much the group _really_ cared, and she didn't have the time to waste on them anyway. She needed to get all of her schoolwork out of the way and raise her grades so she could go ghost hunting every day instead of twice a week.

In between those hunts she practiced using her ghost weapons—she'd become quite good at handling the Fenton Thermos, and she had even managed to repair a flaw in its design with her father's guidance—but there was nothing like flying through the sky and seeing the ghosts flee in fear.

Well, all but a few. She had fought some very powerful ghosts lately, and had gleefully beaten them and dumped them back into the Ghost Zone. Hunting was her life now, and she lived for the difficult fights.

Yet there was one ghost who no longer ever showed, and he was the one ghost whom she hated the most.

The ghost kid.

She _was_ slightly confused at his disappearance, though initially she didn't care. He had disappeared when Danny's family had died—and she was sure that he was involved in that fight somehow. He might have even been the one who somehow had tricked the Fentons and Danny's friends into being at the Nasty Burger when it exploded.

She snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a deep laugh above her. She glanced up, and hid a gasp when she saw Skulker floating above the school. No way! What was _he_ doing here?

Well, it didn't matter. She ran behind a wall and clicked her heels together, nearly instantly forming her armor and hoverboard around and below her. Her father didn't know she had kept the suit Mr. Masters had given her, and she was sure he'd be furious if he found out, but she knew she always had to be ready for surprises like this one.

She grabbed the Fenton Thermos out of her backpack and kicked the board into gear. She quickly rose to the roof of the school, activated her wrist weapon, and prepared to fire—

—when suddenly a familiar black-costumed ghost darted in front of her and tackled Skulker, flying them both straight through a tree to smash into the ground. Instantly Skulker blew the boy away with a rocket launcher and the two were in the air again, the boy shooting ghost rays from his hands and Skulker retaliating with his usual nets and gunshots.

"Be gone, whelp!" Skulker snapped, throwing an odd box at the boy. "I am not hunting _you_."

"Maybe you should." The boy charged his hands and shot a _particularly_ powerful ghost ray at the box, blowing it into a million pieces before it could touch him. He then formed a huge ball of energy between his hands and fired at Skulker, who barely managed to dodge the blast.

Valerie stared at the two of them for a moment, slightly confused at why the ghost boy was here _now_, as she hadn't seen him in weeks.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter," she muttered to herself, and fired. Pink ectoplasmic goo flew from her gun into the air and hit Skulker point-blank, making him howl in anger. He blindly slashed out and managed to hit the unlucky ghost boy, smashing him into the ground. Valerie aimed again, this time changing the weapon's setting to laser—

Then Skulker managed to clear his eyes and shot a leashed net at _her_. She cried out but couldn't jump out of the way in time, and screamed as Skulker activated the net and the electricity began to fry her outer armor—

—and then the ghost boy was there, phasing Valerie out of the net and shooting a crackling stream of pure energy up the net's cord and into Skulker himself. Skulker roared in pain and disconnected the net while the boy gently put Valerie down on the rooftop before flying back into the air.

"Leave, ghost child!" snapped Skulker as the boy hovered between him and Valerie. "I do not hunt you today. Be glad of it."

"No thanks," answered the ghost kid. He shifted into a battle stance, and his hands glowed green. "Leave her alone."

"I don't need _your_ help, ghost!" Valerie snarled, and finally fired the now-activated laser cannon. The boy dodged out the way in time, but Skulker took the full blast and shot backwards through the sky and away from the school. The ghost boy instantly flew after him and shot more ghost rays into Skulker's body to injure him and keep him moving.

Valerie looked down and saw a news cameraman filming the entire scene with some blonde news reporter talking into a mike. She knew her father might see her, but there was no way she would be left out of this fight. She jumped back on her hoverboard and kicked it into gear, flying as fast as she could after the two ghosts.

Meanwhile, the ghost kid raced forward and managed to fly above Skulker, firing a charged ghost ray out of his hands to slam him into the ground. The boy dived down and crashed straight into the hunter, burying him farther into the concrete. Before Skulker could so much as raise his head the boy removed a thermos from around his shoulder and sucked the ghost in, replacing the cap as quickly as he could once the ghost was gone.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing, ghost?" snapped Valerie, aiming her weapon at the boy. "That was _my_ fight! I heard him!"

And then, the boy did something _completely_ off. Instead of lecturing her on how not all ghosts were evil, or telling her to go away, or even shooting a ghost ray at her to begin a fight, he simply phased into the ground and disappeared.

Valerie stared openmouthed for a moment, then whirled her hoverboard in a circle, searching for some sign of the ghost.

"Get out here, ghost!" she shrieked. "Hiding from me, are you!"

But there was no answer, none at all. After a while she realized he really _wasn't_ going to fight, and landed.

Strange.

Yes, the ghost boy _had_ been acting strange, she realized. Instead of bantering with Skulker as he fought he had remained silent, only speaking when he stopped to protect Valerie—or interfere, which equated to the same thing in her mind. And when she challenged him he ran instead of fought, which he had _never_ done before. And why had Skulker gone after her but left the ghost kid alone instead of hunting them both? And what was the creep doing with a Fenton Thermos? How had he learned how to use it?

Even though Valerie knew her father would be furious with her, she didn't return to school. She had too much to think about—the ghost boy's strange personality change, why he had shown up now after three weeks' absence, Skulker's sudden disinterest in him …it didn't make sense. She needed more information.

She just hoped her father would let her explain what happened and why she skipped school. She needed his advice.

- - -

"So you're telling me that the reason you followed them was because you thought it was _your_ fight, even though you _should_ have stayed in school and not have tried to attack dangerous ghosts, and you realized Danny Phantom ran from you instead of fought with you, which is strange for him?"

"Yes, Daddy," she said. "But you don't understand—you've never fought him. He always _talks. _Sometimes he'll throw bad puns around or try to convince you he's actually _good_, but he's never just…silent. It was like there was one thing on his mind, just the one—and nothing else mattered."

"Well, that _is_ ghostly behavior," her father said. "Ghosts tend to obsess over a certain thing—like how Skulker obsesses with being the best hunter, or how the Box Ghost obsesses over boxes. Perhaps Phantom obsesses over fighting…ghost fighting."

"That doesn't explain how he got a thermos," Valerie said impatiently. "And like I said, he's never acted like that before. I hate him, but…it was strange."

Suddenly the phone rang. "I'll get it," they said at the same time, but her father found a phone first.

"Hello?" he asked, ignoring her glare. Then his expression changed to one of surprise. "Oh, hello, Mr. Masters!"

"It's Mr. Masters?" Valerie repeated excitedly, and pulled on her father's sleeve. "Daddy, put him on speaker!"

"Yes, we're doing quite well," said her father, ignoring her. "We're working on the Fenton Thermos, and we've already repaired a flaw in the design…Valerie is doing fine." He paused, then blinked. "You want to—? Well, all right."

He passed the phone to her. "Mr. Masters wants to speak with you. Be polite."

"Of course, Daddy!" she said, and took the phone. "Hello, Mr. Masters!"

"Hello, Miss Gray," the man responded. "I have a favor to ask you."

"Oh, sure! What do you need?"

"I want you to capture Danny Phantom."

Valerie grinned.

"Music to my ears, Mr. Masters," she replied.

"I don't want him injured, however," he cautioned. "Capture him and bring him to me. I trust that you can do this quickly?"

"Of course, Mr. Masters! I won't let you down!" She lowered her voice. "You might want to tell my dad that, though. He's getting really restrictive about ghost fighting."

Mr. Masters laughed. "Of course. Put him back on the phone."

Valerie did so, and smiled when she saw her father's expression change. She left the room and headed down to the lab, humming as she went. This would be fun.

- - -

After an hour of flying around the town, Valerie was _furious_.

"I don't care that Mr. Masters said not to hurt him," she growled under her breath. "He's gonna pay for wasting my ghost-hunting time." Sure, she'd found the Box Ghost down in a warehouse while searching, but he didn't count.

She finally found the ghost boy half an hour later in the cemetery, sitting on Danny Fenton's tombstone, head resting on his hands, a blank expression on his face.

She grew even angrier. How _dare_ he insult Danny by being anywhere _near_ his remains! How dare he disrespect Danny's grave!

"Found you, ghost!" she snarled as she swooped down, blasting a laser shot at him as she dived. He jumped and dodged the beam neatly, though the ground wasn't so lucky. The grass around the grave burned into a nice crater.

"What are _you_ doing here?" he snapped, his hands glowing green in reaction. "Go away!"

"No way, creep!" She yanked out the thermos, and gave a grin of satisfaction as the ghost's eyes widened slightly. He took off, but Valerie was right behind him, taking pot shots as she could.

"Go _away_, Valerie!" the ghost yelled, frustrated. Valerie only kicked in the rocket boosters until she was parallel him.

"See ya, ghost!" she shouted, and blasted him with another laser shot. He couldn't dodge in time, and smashed into the ground, burn marks on his face and uniform.

"That for making me run around for an hour and a half looking for you!" she yelled. Then she aimed and shot again, pummeling him further into the ground, then shot again, and again, and again. "And _those _were for disrespecting Danny's grave!" she snarled. "Creeps like you shouldn't be near my friends!"

She gave a final shot and landed, pulling out her thermos. "Time for you to disappear forever, ghost," she snapped, and sucked him in. He didn't even have enough energy to cry out.

Valerie smiled. A small part of her was disappointed, though—usually he gave a better fight.

But she had finally caught him, and now she could give the creep to Mr. Masters. She hoped Mr. Masters would experiment on him or something—he deserved whatever was coming to him.

She activated her new communicator.

"Daddy, I caught the ghost," she said. "Call Mr. Masters and tell him, okay?"

"All right. And the second you get home you're doing your homework, understand?"

"Oh, all right," she sighed. "See ya."

She rattled the thermos, but there was no sound from inside. She kicked her hoverboard into gear and took off, thermos held firmly in one hand.

A small part of her wondered why she felt upset that it had been so easy.

An even smaller part, an almost nonexistent part, wished she hadn't caught him at all, and she refused to think about why.


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

"_Time to spend a little quality time with Uncle Vlad."_

_- - - _

Vlad sighed as he looked at the unconscious boy in the glowing blue ghost containment box. His face and costume were covered with burn marks, and he looked like he'd been shot half a dozen times with a laser. Knowing how Valerie fought, he probably _had_, but that was beside the point.

Vlad paced back and forth like a caged tiger, irritated, as he waited for the boy to wake up. He could shock him awake, but that would hardly be a good way to start negotiations.

What had happened to the boy to make him commit suicide with a ghost weapon, of all things? Had he been trying to make sure he didn't come back as a ghost? Good thinking, if it hadn't failed as so many of Daniel's plans did.

No, that was unfair. The boy was improving in Vlad's covert tutelage. Or rather, _had._

What on earth had _happened? _What had made Daniel so unstable that he shot himself? How had he stayed behind as a ghost?

Vlad wanted—no, _needed_ to know. A part of him wondered whether to just go ahead and shock the ghost awake (after all, they weren't on the best of terms anyway), but then he heard a soft groan.

Daniel was waking up, slowly. Vlad watched, not a small bit fascinated, as the boy blearily opened his eyes and searched his surroundings. The ghost's dazed expression came into sharp focus when he realized he was in a container, and he yelped outright when he saw Vlad. He instantly started struggling, pummeling and kicking the glowing box around him, eyes wide and terrified.

Vlad blinked, slightly thrown off. "Don't fight you fool, that box is a portable ghost shield," he snapped, sounding harsher than he realized. "You should know you can't break out of it by now." Really. When Vlad Masters caught someone, they stayed caught until he felt otherwise.

Vlad shook his head and sighed when there was no response. "Daniel, stop thrashing about and calm down!"

Daniel only fought harder, attempting to use a ghost ray to pummel through a glowing wall. He yelped and tried to duck the shot as it bounced off the side and around the box, finally catching him in the leg. The boy bit back another cry and instead kicked at the wall again uselessly.

He really _was_ panicking, Vlad realized. What on earth…?

"If you're so desperate to get loose," Vlad said, not wanting to watch Daniel hurt himself any longer, "then tell me what happened to you and I'll release you."

Vlad folded his arms and waited.

Daniel, as Vlad had come to expect, only continued to struggled until he exhausted himself, breathing heavily. He'd put up a good fight, especially for a barely one-month-old ghost. The scientist in Vlad's mind wished that he'd hooked up his monitoring equipment before Daniel woke up and gathered some readings. How death affected a half-ghost would be something fairly important to know down the line.

However, instead of responding to Vlad's question Daniel turned his back on him. He felt his temper rise a moment. No one turned his back on Vlad Masters!

But Vlad looked at him once again and his anger dampened. He simply couldn't keep himself angry with the boy…not with the current conditions. Not with his own confused, tangled emotions getting in the way—the feelings of joy at seeing Maddie's son alive in some way, relief that he would still have a chance to mentor the boy and take him in as his own, the despair that this had happened at all…

Vlad shook himself out of his thoughts. Musing on the situation would not make it any better.

"Daniel," he said, trying a different track, "it will be easier on both of us if you simply _tell me_ _what happened to you_—we can find a way to set things right. Daniel, let me help you!"

Daniel only tensed—silent, angry, defensive. He looked like a bear cub caught in a trap. Vlad began to feel uneasy.

"Daniel, don't be that way," he said, his voice slightly pleading. "Let me help you. What happened? What are you doing here?"

The boy didn't respond.

"Daniel, please," Vlad said, walking around the box to face the boy. Daniel turned his face away, but otherwise didn't move. "I only want to know what you are doing here...and why."

Still, nothing.

Vlad's unease worsened. "Daniel, I do not want to hurt you…I merely want to know why you're here. That's not too much to ask, is it?"

Daniel glared and opened his mouth to snap a response, but snapped it shut just as quickly and turned aside, lips a thin line.

Vlad blinked. That wasn't like Daniel. None of this was like the little badger he knew—the child he knew was easily angered and never held back, always had a comeback ready and his heart on his sleeve. He never quieted himself. Never held himself in check.

This was not the boy Vlad Masters had known and fought.

What if this wasn't…Daniel…at all?

Vlad shook his head to banish the thought.

But what had _happened_ to him…?

"Daniel, please tell me what has happened to you," Vlad asked one last time when the boy wouldn't reply. "If you do, I'll let you go."

Daniel only glared at him, mistrust evident in his eyes. _Well, it's_ some _sort of reaction,_ Vlad thought, though a part of him felt injured at the anger directed at him. Of course, he hadn't always given Daniel a _reason_ to trust him, but…

"I know what happened at the Nasty Burger wasn't an accident," Vlad began, trying another tactic. Maybe if he pushed some buttons Daniel would finally respond. "It was some ghost, wasn't it, trying to get revenge for your useless little heroics? I told you they were pointless, Daniel! But you kept playing superhero and got Maddie killed because of it, didn't you? Was that why you killed yourself? Because you felt responsible for their deaths?"

He'd touched a nerve. Daniel's eyes widened, then narrowed, and he almost said something again.

But he didn't answer.

Vlad sighed. Everything short of torture had failed, so…

"Daniel, I don't want to do this, but you leave me no choice." He pulled out a remote. "This remote will cause that box to give you an electric shock…but if you tell me what happened, I will let you go unharmed."

Daniel didn't move.

Vlad gave him one last, sad glance…then pressed a large red button.

Suddenly bolts of electricity crackled around Daniel's body, and he screeched in pain. He tried to hover to get away from the shock, but there wasn't enough room, and all he could do was curl and try to bite back his screams…

…until the electricity shut off and Daniel fell down, panting.

_I _had_ to do it,_ Vlad told himself. There was no way Daniel would talk otherwise, and Vlad needed him to talk. _He needed to know._

"Daniel, don't make me do that again," the man pleaded one final time. Daniel didn't move. Vlad made a great show of reaching for the remote—

"All right!" Daniel snapped finally. "All right! But you have to promise to let me go!"

"Of course, Daniel," said Vlad quickly, fighting an urge to roll his eyes. How many times had he told the boy exactly that? Typical Daniel. "I will let you out of the box as soon as you tell me what happened."

"No, you'll let me _leave_ this lab and go back to Amity Park."

Vlad sighed. "Yes, yes, I will return you to Amity Park—you can use the Plasmius Portal. Now, tell me what happened, from the beginning. The _very_ beginning."

Daniel glared at him, looking rather like a pouting child. "You don't want to know."

"Daniel, obviously I do want to know. The fact I have had you captured, brought here, questioned, and even tortured to get this information should make it very clear to even your fourteen-year-old mind that I want to know."

"You want to know? You really want to know?" Why did Daniel look so triumphant and sick at the same time?

Vlad felt his annoyance grow, but ignored it.

Daniel gave him a deranged grin. "I'll tell you. You're right. Mom was killed by a ghost. A ghost _you_ created. You're the one responsible for her death!"

Vlad's eyes narrowed. "Explain, Daniel. Right now."

"In the future, you ripped my ghost half out of me and it was evil." Daniel's narrowed eyes glowed with damaged satisfaction as he watched Vlad's slowly paling face. "It took over your ghost half and ended up nearly destroying the world. You were left a broken, powerless old man, mourning over a photograph of my parents and you in college and talking about how you wished you'd appreciated your friends while they were still alive."

Vlad's jaw dropped in shock, but he quickly recovered. "Daniel, I'm glad you're finally starting to realize the value of a good lie, but that was not a good lie."

"This ghost named Clockwork showed up and Sam, Tucker and I ended up going ten years in the future," Daniel continued, ignoring him. "And there Valerie was fighting the evil me, Phantom, and the evil me tried to kill her and my friends. I swore I'd never turn into him, but he went back in time to arrange the accident that made me become him—the explosion at the Nasty Burger. I got back from the future and fought him, but he kept up the fight long enough so the explosion happened anyway."

Clockwork? Vlad had never heard of him. But something in the boy's face, in the way his eyes went from triumphant to haunted and dead while telling the tale, told him this wasn't a lie.

"I'm starting to believe you, Daniel," he said finally. "But how am _I _responsible for what you did or failed to do? Perhaps you're the one I should destroy for killing Maddie, hmm?"

"I told you, you created Phantom!" Daniel cried, suddenly impassioned. "It was just like what was happening! My family died, then you adopted me. You felt sorry for me, at least that was what you said, and tried to make it so I wouldn't be sad anymore. 'No more painful human emotions,' you said. And that made me turn into _him_! I had to stop it!"

So that was why Daniel had panicked when he heard Vlad was going to adopt him. Vlad's assumption that Daniel had been upset because of the adoption was true—but for the wrong reason. Daniel had done this because he was terrified of becoming this devil, this Phantom.

"So you killed yourself to stop that future from happening? Should not your decision to not allow me to remove your emotions have stopped it? Forewarned is forearmed."

"He didn't disappear even when I swore I wouldn't turn into him, " Daniel said, staring at his clenched hands as he shook his head. "I had to destroy my ghost half, it was the only thing that would work! Without ghost powers, I would have been a normal human, not something that could turn everything around Amity Park into a wasteland and you into a broken old man."

"I can understand why you tried to kill your ghost half, Daniel," Vlad said, running his hands over his tired face. The information had hit him harder than he'd let show, but it still hurt, and he knew the ghost knew it. "But, Daniel…why didn't you remember that ghost weapons hurt humans as much as ghosts? What were you _thinking_?"

"We…weren't," Daniel said softly, almost to himself. "I didn't know what was happening. I—I mean, um, the ghost half—was…I don't know how to describe it. Awake, but asleep, like how it always was when we were in human form…so I didn't know what was going on. We just had to stop that future from happening again. Somehow. Now that we knew. _I _knew."

"So you weren't thinking about what you were doing when you killed yourself," Vlad clarified, holding back an inappropriate surge of annoyance. Typical Daniel foolishness. No thinking things through, or looking for help—just emotional reaction. "And was an accident that your human half died instead of your ghost half, then?"

"…Yes. But…I don't know how much of me—how much of him died and how much is here." Daniel patted his heart unconsciously. "It's just very…confusing. Can I leave now?"

"_No_, Daniel," Vlad said firmly. "You're still not yourself. You should have come to me for aid instead of almost destroying yourself. Daniel, _you need help."_

"No I don't!" Daniel yelled. "And least of all from _you!_ Now let—me—out—of—here!" With each word he pounded against the box's sides, but of course he couldn't make the slightest leeway.

"All right, Daniel, all right," Vlad soothed sadly. "But remember…when you realize you need help, come to me."

The boy only snorted.

"Daniel, I'm going to let you go now," Vlad said. "But don't be afraid to find help."

He pressed a blue button, and the box faded away. Before the man could so much as blink Daniel took off, phasing through the wall and out the room in a second.

_Typical Daniel,_ Vlad thought, shaking his head.

"The ghost portal is the other way!"


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

"_Ah, very good. All the pawns doing _exactly_ as they're supposed to."_

- - -

As his private jet sped back to Amity Park, Vlad Masters plotted.

Daniel had, of course, left before Vlad could mention that he would let the boy use his ghost portal to quickly go back to Amity Park. This would work to his advantage, though, as it would take Daniel several days to fly back, even at high ghost speeds. By the time Daniel returned, everything—and every_one_—would be ready for him.

"Sir, we're landing at Amity Park now," the ghost pilot intoned respectfully into the intercom.

"Very good," Vlad answered, and pulled on his seatbelt for landing.

Now it was time to let the game begin.

- - -

Vlad rang the doorbell of the Maddie Fenton Memorial Ghost Laboratory, though the locals still called the place Fenton Works. The door opened, and Valerie stood in the doorway, head cocked slightly to the right.

"Mr. Masters?" she asked, surprised. "What are you doing here? Is this about the ghost kid?"

"Spot on!" he answered. "You're such a bright girl, so perceptive. Come, walk with me."

"Okay!" Valerie followed him, flattered. They strolled down the street, Vlad with his hands behind his back, Valerie with her arms swinging slightly.

"So why did you come back to Amity Park, Mr. Masters?"

"Oh, to check up on you…is your equipment functioning properly?"

"Yeah!" she said eagerly. "Dad upgraded it, but I still can't go hunting more than twice a week. Can't you convince him to let me out more?"

Vlad laughed. "Now Valerie, you know you must also focus on your studies to be the best ghost hunter!"

"I guess…" She looked down at her feet, ashamed. "I'm sorry I lost the ring, Mr. Masters."

"Never mind that, what matters is that you are safe." He patted her on the shoulder. "Facing up to Pariah Dark! My dear, I am so very proud of you." He wiped away a tear. "So that was why the ring was so important! I placed you in terrible danger, didn't I? What a despicable villain I am." They both laughed at the old joke.

"I kill me!" he laughed, then stopped and sighed. "That was in bad taste, considering the circumstances."

"Circumstances? What do you mean?"

"Poor, poor Daniel," Vlad said, avoiding the answer. He was enjoying himself, but he didn't show it. Instead he shook his head and gave another sad sigh. "If only he had come to me for help! But then, if he couldn't even trust his own family with his secret. I had counted on him telling you, but he must have been so frightened because of Jack trying to kill him!"

"What…what secret?"

"It's not really my secret to tell, but I suppose I must. This is a hard thing to tell you about an old friend, Miss Gray, but you must know that Jack Fenton was somewhat…not the most careful or _competent_ person. Eccentric? Yes, that's a good way to put it."

"I don't want to say something about your friend, Mr. Masters, but he wasn't a very good ghost hunter."

Vlad smiled, pleased. "He was careless in other ways as well. He created a ghost portal without thinking of the consequences, caused the accident that put me in the hospital for years, and then what happened to Daniel!" Vlad sighed. "I hated to do it to a friend, but it simply wasn't safe for Jasmine and Daniel there. You remember that Maddie was rather peeved with me when we met the first time, Miss Gray? That was because I had begged her and Daniel to leave Jack and come stay with me until something could be done."

"Something could be done? What are you talking about?"

Vlad smiled inwardly.

Bait cast.

"Until something could be done about Jack's reckless experimenting and… tendency to have accidents. Why, one time their house almost blew up because he forgot to make sure the Ecto-Filtrator for the Ghost Portal had been changed." Vlad shook his head. "That was why I tried to get Maddie to spend some time away from him. It certainly wasn't because I wanted to break them up and reclaim my college love for myself."

"Of course not, Mr. Masters," she answered.

"But that was how Daniel saw it, I'm afraid. He believed I was a home wrecker, and as such he wouldn't accept my help. That was another reason I gave you the equipment…I wanted him to have a competent and _capable_ ally to help him hunt the ghosts that Jack's portal unleashed on your poor town."

"Help Danny hunt ghosts? What are you talking about, Mr. Masters?"

"This really isn't my secret to tell," Vlad repeated. "Please don't tell him I told you this. But Daniel… you see, some months ago there must have been an accident with Jack's portal. I discovered when Maddie's family came to our college reunion that Daniel was… well, what is called a hybrid."

"Hybrid?" squeaked Valerie. She didn't like where this was going.

"Half ghost. The portal rearranged his DNA." Vlad sighed. "After I found out about that, I knew Jack's carelessness must have caused it, and I confronted the boy to find out what had happened. He refuses to accept that it was that idiot Jack's fault and seems to think I hate my dear old friend!"

"H-half ghost? Danny?" Valerie was so shocked she didn't even notice Vlad's contradiction. He knew she wouldn't.

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Now, Miss Gray, I hope you don't think he's some sort of monster. Why, some of the greatest ghost hunters of all time have been hybrids! And he's carrying on that tradition. I'm so proud of the boy…"

"D-Danny was half ghost?" She was still trying to comprehend this fact, and she wasn't taking it well. "And he…and he hunted ghosts? Was he…" she gulped as gears clicked into place. "Did he ever…change form…at all?"

"Yes, as I found out," Vlad said with a sigh. "His hair became white and his eyes green when he shifted into his ghost-form, and he took the pseudonym of 'Danny Phantom'."

"You mean he's—he was the _ghost kid?_" she gasped. "But—but—I just—I just caught him for you! How—how could—"

"I thought the same thing when I first saw him," Vlad answered sympathetically. "I was so surprised that he survived dying! That was why I asked you to capture him—I wanted to ask him myself. He must have given quite a fight!"

Valerie coughed behind her hand and didn't meet his eyes.

"I tried speaking with him," Vlad continued, "but with him so…distraught, he was hardly willing to talk to me. His feelings, I believe, have only gotten stronger through death, and he believes me an enemy instead of a friend. It did not go well. I was going to bring him back to Amity Park with me, but he flew off first. I had hoped he would let me help…but he will have nothing to do with me. Miss Gray, that's why it's more important now than ever that you help him."

"Of…of course, Mr. Masters…" She trailed off into thought, and Vlad waited, amused. He could practically see the cogs turning in her head. "I can't believe he was the ghost kid…why didn't he tell me? Why didn't he tell _anyone_? If I knew…"

"Only he can answer that question, Miss Gray," he said. He took her hand. "He needs his last friend to stand by him. Please, talk to him, help him. Give him something to live for."

"I will, Mr. Masters," she swore.

"Thank you so much, my dear. I knew I could count on you. But a little advice—please don't mention me, as he resents me for… well, insinuating that his father wasn't completely competent or the brightest man alive. And of course, don't mention that his becoming a hybrid was Jack's fault. It might set him off."

Valerie nodded.

"He will need help fighting as well," Vlad continued. "You see, when a ghost first dies it is weak, and easily loses energy and powers. I don't know how that works for a hybrid, but he has made many enemies while defending Amity Park, and I am afraid that they will take advantage of him."

Valerie nodded again. She understood about enemies who attacked when one was down.

"I know I can count on you to keep my dear old friend's son safe, and see to it that he has access to the ghost-hunting equipment that your father is working on for me."

"Of course, Mr. Masters—I'll…I'll take care of him." For a moment she looked lost, as though she remembered just how many times she had attacked him—and how many times he must have held back.

"Thank you so much, my dear." He shook her hand. "You're so easy to manipulate, I know you'll do exactly what I want you to!" He grinned at her, and they both laughed.

"It's important we keep our spirits up despite this horrible tragedy that I'm sure wasn't Jack's fault at all," he said after they calmed down.

"Definitely, Mr. Masters."

And now the last thing to address. "I know you must be busy with your friends, but could you perhaps… try to get him to enjoy life, to have some fun besides just hunting ghosts? I'd hate to think of my little badger spending his time all alone."

She nodded slowly. "I will, Mr. Masters."

"And I'll speak to your father about letting you go out more. I should start giving you a salary, with the fine work you've been doing. In fact, I owe you some back money, and your equipment is about due for another upgrade."

Valerie's face lit up. "Thank you, Mr. Masters!"

"No, no, thank you, my dear." He rubbed his hands together briskly. "I'm sure the two of us will be able to turn Daniel's afterlife around."

Valerie looked troubled for a moment, but finally smiled weakly. "Yes, Mr. Masters."

And after Vlad walked Valerie back to her house, he couldn't hold back a slightly maniacal laugh.

_Bait taken_.


	7. Chapter Six

_Marisa's note: the fact that Mr. Hartman chose 'waste' as his alternative for 'kill' has always annoyed me—I mean, seriously, this isn't a gangster film! So, as I have done in other fics, I'm going to use the terms 'kill' or 'destroy' (since I'm not sure you can kill a ghost) instead. I might use 'waste' as well, but don't expect it. This follows under the clause of 'this is a vaguely serious fic (if you haven't noticed) and as such we'll be using vaguely serious words'._

_Also, to all of our lovely reviewers: seriously, could you expect Vlad to be anything _but _evil?  
_

_- - - _

**Chapter Six**

"_You're not half bad, Danny. Maybe someday Valerie will figure out the other half isn't either!" _

- - -

_Darn it,_ Valerie thought as she flew over Amity Park on her upgraded hoverboard, _why isn't he here yet?_

It had been several days since Mr. Masters had come to explain who Danny Phantom really was and how he needed help, but Valerie still had a hard time believing it. Danny Fenton a ghost—and furthermore, a ghost who had repeatedly let her try to destroy him? Why hadn't he told her? Why hadn't he told _anyone?_

He must have told Sam and Tucker—they spent too much time together for them to have not known. That stung—Danny had been able to trust them with the secret, but not her? True, she had sworn to destroy Danny Phantom on sight, but she would have stopped had she known. (She ignored the small part of her that said, _you know you wouldn't have, not without a good explanation as to why he turned your life upside down._)

"Darn it, darn it, darn it!" she grumbled. "It shouldn't take this long to get back from Wisconsin…shouldn't it? I've seen him fly really fast…"

But ghosts took time to gather strength after they died. Danny may have been strong while he was alive, but now he might be severely weakened because of his death…what if one of his enemies had gotten to him before he made it back to Amity Park…?

_No!_ she thought. _Don't think of that! He'll be fine. He'll make it here and then I can yell at him for being so_ **_stupid!_**

That thought cheered her up, and she began to search the town with renewed vigor. How would she catch him? She could try to use the new thermos, but she needed to actually talk to him, and it was pretty hard to interrogate someone when they were stuck inside a fancy soup container. Her new net-gun might work, though. It was worth a shot.

Suddenly she heard an explosion from her left. She swerved, switching her net-gun to her favorite bazooka, and searched for the source.

There! She could see the smoking crater in a nearby water tower, steam mixing with the smoke. For a moment she thought she saw a white hand try to pull itself out of the twisted wreak, but it—or rather, its owner—fell back with a thud.

"This hunt was disappointing, ghost child," smirked a deep voice. "Perhaps you will not have the honor of having your pelt at the foot of my bed after all." Valerie's eyes widened, and her lip curled unconsciously. _Skulker!_

Then she thought about what he said. Take the ghost kid's pelt?

That sounded kind of cool, actually.

She shook her head. No, wait, this might be Danny, and skinning Danny alive was _not_ cool.

Either way, Skulker's victim didn't respond. The hunting ghost closed in on the water tower, his smirk growing larger—

She fired her bazooka and blew Skulker away, sending him flying into another apartment complex.

"Hey!" she yelled. "You want to pick a fight, you take _me _on, creep!"

Skulker's booster rockets flared into life, and he righted himself, looking for who had shot at him.

"Ah, the hunter girl," he smiled as he spotted her. "I was disappointed that the hunt had ended so soon. Now there will be more hitting!"

"Hit _this_!" she switched the bazooka's setting from 'laser' to 'missile' and fired, sending half a dozen ectoplasm-seeking bombs flying towards the ghost. He twisted and tried to dodge, but three hit him square in the wings, and he fell, smashing into the concrete.

Unfortunately, that left three extra ecto-missiles flying around, searching for a victim. She watched as the ghost kid pulled himself out of the busted remains of the water tower, rubbing his head as he tried to get his bearings—

—before the bombs locked onto him and blasted him back inside, knocking him out once again. Valerie winced. For once _that_ not been intended.

"You truly believed that little shot was enough to take down Ghost Zone's greatest predator?" growled a voice behind her. Valerie whirled just in time to get blasted in the stomach with a glowing green ray. She slammed into an opposing wall, her wrists and ankles bound in green ropes, and landed onto the ground with a THUNK. Her vision swam as she fought unconsciousness, and while her armor had taken most of the damage, her whole body felt like it had been—well—slammed into a hard brick wall.

"I was expecting a better fight," Skulker sulked. "What a disappointing catch!"

"Catch this!"

A huge ball of green ghost energy hit Skulker in the back, once again blowing the hunting ghost into a building. His suit's missile launcher smashed into the concrete face and broke in half, and the ghost fell to the ground, breaking a laser as well.

"Are you all right?" the ghost kid asked worriedly as he helped Valerie to her feet. She nodded wordlessly, staring at him. Now that she knew who he had been, she felt like smacking herself for being such an idiot—how could she have not noticed that his facial structure was the same, that he had the same haircut, that he was the same height, that he had the same voice? Sure, the colors were different, and his voice echoed for some reason, but…

_Well, you also thought the ghost kid was dead and a full ghost_, she answered herself dryly. _It's hard to think someone could be a ghost when they're clearly alive and human._

"Uh…Valerie?" The ghost kid—Danny—waved his hand in front of her face. "I'm as amazed as you are that you're not trying to destroy me, but we've really got to move."

"Hey, creep—" she snapped out of habit, but the ghost only grabbed her hand and took off into the air just as a net shot forward and snapped shut below them, empty. Skulker growled up at them, retracting the net angrily.

"You thought you could sneak up on me!" he snapped, and a wrist gun of his own clanked into place, charging. "Me, Ghost Zone's—"

"Greatest hunter, yeah yeah, we know already!" Danny grumbled, rolling his eyes. Valerie blinked. Was that just a reaction, or was that him trying to do his habitual (and annoying) "witty" banter?

Suddenly Danny swerved, and Valerie came back to the real world as she saw a bunch of glowing green swords lodge themselves into a building's wall.

"Valerie, can't you go all gun crazy like you usually do and _hit him with something?_" Danny yelled, frustrated.

"Shut up, ghost, I was just about to!" she growled without a thought. Then she realized how rude she had sounded and bit her lip, annoyed. It would take some effort to remember to _not_ insult the ghost kid from now on.

She pressed a button on her left wrist, and her hoverboard smashed into Skulker from out of nowhere, racing past him to stop at her feet. She caught her balance as Danny let her down on the board and kicked a back panel, setting the rocket boosters to maximum, and shot forward to the still recovering hunting ghost.

"Take this!" she yelled, and her shoulder gun shot up and blasted a laser ray at Skulker, blowing him one final time into a wall. She then yanked out her improved Fenton Thermos and sucked the ghost in, who roared in fury as he attempted to resist. However, his efforts were in vain, and within a minute the hunter was trapped within the container.

She smirked and shook it, as she had gotten into the habit of lately. "Not too tough now, are ya?" she asked, not expecting an answer.

"Well, it was fun fighting _with_ you for once, but I'm off," she heard someone quip behind her. She whirled to see Danny salute her almost playfully as he took off at top speed.

"Hold it right there!" she yelled, kicking her booster rockets in once again.

"Do I look like I died yesterday?" the ghost kid shot back, and despite herself Valerie felt her spirits rise. Yes, that definitely sounded like the usual banter the ghost kid had thrown around before he died, and the sort of thing Danny would say—this really could be him!

"Stop! I mean it!" she yelled, and fired. The ghost yelped as he dodged the blast.

_Brilliant_, she thought angrily, mentally slapping herself. _Next time switch to the net gun_ before _you almost blow his brains out._

"That was a warning shot!" she yelled as she switched guns, not wanting to make herself look stupid even if it _had _been an accident. "Now stay_ still,_ Danny _Fenton_!"

The ghost froze despite himself, though momentum still carried him forward. _Perfect_, Valerie thought in satisfaction, and fired.

"_Gyah!"_ Danny yelped despite himself as the net closed around him and dragged him back. He began to struggle fiercely, but Valerie ignored him as she landed on a building roof. She was confident he couldn't break free.

He punched at the net one last time before turning to glare at her, arms crossing in annoyance.

"Just great," he grumbled at her—or maybe at himself. "First I had to fly here all the way from Wisconsin and got myself so lost I ended up in _California_, then I finally made it here only to get ambushed by Skulker, and now I got caught by you _again_! Whatcha gonna do this time, _gift wrap_ me before you drop me off at Vlad's?"

He looked so peeved and childish Valerie burst out laughing. "Wait, you flew to California? What, too proud to ask for directions?"

"Yeah, like many people are gonna give directions to a gho—" he stopped as he realized something. "Hey, why aren't you trying to destroy me?"

"I ask the questions around here," she snapped quickly, not wanting to answer _that_ question just yet.

She took a deep breath, then stared him straight in the eye. "Are you Danny Fenton?"

She hid a smirk when she saw his pupils dilate and his eyes widen just a bit. She'd hit a nerve, and probably the right one, too.

Danny gave a weak laugh. "Uh, yeah, I'm Danny—Danny _Phantom_. Are you calling me by my name now?"

"Nice try, but you suck at lying." She took off her helmet and shook out her hair. "I figured it out a while ago." She didn't want to admit she had had help—of course, the fact Mr. Masters had cautioned her against it helped too. "Now answer my questions or I'll put you in the thermos and _make_ you answer them at home!"

Danny thrashed around some more, but made no headway. "I told you, you've got the wrong guy!" he yelled, frustrated. "Danny Fenton's _dead_!"

"So are you," she snapped, and instantly wished she could take the words back at his downcast expression.

"I wish," he mumbled to himself, and Valerie's eyes widened. What did he mean by _that_? Oh, she had questions all right.

Danny shook his head and glared up at her, probably hoping she hadn't noticed the slip. "Yeah, but I've been dead a while. Why else would I be here when Fenton isn't?"

"That's what I want to find out, Danny!" she yelled, exasperated. "Why didn't you _tell me_ who you were? I'm your friend!"

"A friend who wanted to destroy the ghost me!" he snapped back unthinkingly. Then his eyes widened. "Oops…"

"Oops is right!" She whapped him on the head with her gun.

"Hey! You don't have to hit me!" he yelped, but she ignored him.

"Why didn't you tell me you were half ghost?" she snapped. "I wasted hours and hours of my valuable time trying to catch _you _instead of earning money for college or hunting other ghosts, you insensitive jerk!" She hit him again.

"Stop it!" he yelped again, flinching. "I kept _trying_ to tell you I wasn't a bad guy, but you kept shooting at me anyway—even when we were at Axion Labs and your dad ended up getting in trouble, which you blamed _me_ for! How was I supposed to know you wouldn't keep shooting even when you knew it was _me_?"

"You should have trusted me!" she snapped, whapping him again before he could dodge. "I'm your friend, Danny Fenton! I would have listened!"

"I…how could I…" his eyes went blank. "I know," he said softly. "I should have said a…a lot of things. I didn't think…"

_Oh, no,_ she thought, horrified. She had reminded him. _Danny, I'm sorry,_ she wanted to say, but mentally slapped herself upside the head. Why should _she_ apologize to _him_?

"You jerk!" she yelled instead, hitting him again. "You killed yourself! How do you think that made me feel? I was just getting to know you guys, and then Tucker and Sam died, and then just as I was starting to accept that you killed yourself with a…a…a ghost weapon..."

Oh, man.

Suddenly gears clicked into place, and she really did smack herself on the head. _I should have figured it out then!_ she thought. _So obvious…!_

"You killed yourself with that so the ghost would die too, didn't you?" she asked softly.

"No!" he cried. "I was trying to kill the ghost me, not the human me! And then I blacked out and woke up in the ground, and, and—" He clutched his head, eyes clenched shut. "Valerie, just go away," he whispered brokenly. "Please…"

A lump rose in Valerie's throat and her eyes teared despite herself.

"Danny…"

Wait a minute.

Why should she let him just hurt like this? Mr. Masters had said to interact with him, after all, and that was what she wanted to do anyway, and maybe being with her would help him.

She swallowed, wiped the tears from her eyes, and glared at him.

"Well, if you're gonna stick around, I'm not gonna let you be useless," she declared, hitting him on the head one last time.

"What do you mean?" Danny asked, looking both surprised and suspicious. "And _stop hitting me!_"

"I _mean_ you're going to be helping me out," she answered, ignoring him once again. "It's not like you have anything better to do. I'll give you equipment and stuff, and if you knock we'll let down the ghost shield so you can see your house again."

He stared at her blankly, head cocked to the side.

Then he grinned mischievously, eyes glowing brightly. "Maybe later," he smirked. "But you shouldn't have let me rest here first."

And with a shout he overloaded the net's power, and it burst into a million small pieces. Before Valerie could react he saluted her once again and dove straight through the roof of the building, probably heading down into the ground, where she'd never be able to reach him.

"You'll regret that, Danny Fenton!" she yelled at the air. "Just wait 'til—"

But it was pointless. Danny was gone.

_But not forever,_ she thought almost happily. _He'll be back…he won't be able to resist fighting ghosts. And I'll catch him again and talk with him again and hit him again until it gets through his head I really_ **_do_** _want to help him and be his friend._ She frowned. _And we've_ **_got_** _to make a ghost shield that goes underground. He runs away too often through it._

Valerie pulled on her helmet, kicked her hoverboard into gear, and flew to Fenton Works, smirking just a bit.


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

"_Can't we talk?"_

- - -

Ember stuck her head out of the ghost portal and grinned. She'd been waiting for a chance like this since she first heard the dipstick died, and it was finally here. The idiots who now lived here (she had heard that the dipstick's family had been knocked off before he died himself) had left the portal unlocked after they dumped the weakened Skulker back into the Ghost Zone, and she wouldn't waste an opportunity like this. It was time for payback, Ember style.

"Just wait, baby pop," she smirked as she flew through the house and into the air, idly testing the strings of her improved guitar as she did so. "It's time to rock!"

- - -

Danny glided aimlessly through the air, thinking.

So Valerie knew now.

But it didn't really matter at this point, did it? It wasn't like he had a human life anymore, one where he had to keep his other life secret if he wanted to even pretend to be normal. And it wasn't like she would give up hunting him either way—she had practically assured him of that. Not that it mattered. He could defend himself, even from his last friend…

Friend. The last person he really cared about…but no, he had to avoid her. If she caught him again to talk (sure, now that he was dead she wanted to talk!), it would interfere with his ghost hunting, and he couldn't allow that. He _had_ to protect Amity Park. Protecting it was…it was what he _was_.

He looked down and smiled when he saw people waving at him. He waved back, feelings of warmth washing over him when he saw their smiles. It was nice to finally be liked by the town instead of hated...unlike Phantom, who had reveled in hatred. _I'll never become that,_ Danny swore to himself again. _I care about people. I care about Amity Park. As long as I care, I won't become him, right?_

_Right?_

He shook the questions away. _Just patrol,_ he thought. _Find ghosts and catch them. Protect. Don't think about the rest of it. This_ _is your life now...  
_

And that was when he heard a disconcerting chord played on a guitar and slammed into a wall with a pink blast.

"Guess who's back for a comeback tour, dipstick?" gloated the guitar's owner, and Danny bit back a groan. _Ember_!

"It'll be canceled before it ever starts!" Danny snarled back without missing a beat, his hands glowing neon green as he pulled himself out of the wall.

"Dream on, baby pop!" Ember snickered, striking another chord. Danny dodged and fired back, but felt his ghost rays weaken as he himself did. _Oh, man,_ he thought, a hollow pit growing in his stomach. _I'm weak from Skulker and Valerie…_

"I'm not the one dreaming!" he shot back belatedly, determined to ignore his body's orders to shut down. "Back off, wannabe!"

Ember cranked the dial on her guitar and struck another chord, this time forming a shield around herself so Danny's ghost rays bounced off harmlessly. "No one calls me wannabe, dipstick!" she yelled, and switched back to offense, forcing Danny to weave and dodge while trying to direct her shots away from the ground.

He looked down and groaned. People weren't running off—they were gawking!

"Go _away!_" he yelled, waving his hands. "It's dangerous here!"

A few listened and ran, but most simply moved into doorways or ignored him, seemingly frozen to the spot. Well, at least they weren't chanting Ember's name—the last thing he needed was for her to get even _more_ powerful.

"Hey! Pay attention to me, dipstick!" she screeched, sending another blast to smash him into a roof. "Everyone should pay attention to me!"

"Yeah? Why bother—you're not so hot!" he snapped, unable to think of anything else to say. Ugh, lame. His banter had sucked lately.

Ember only laughed at him as her hair grew higher.

"I'm the _hottest_ thing around, dipstick!" she yelled with a smirk, and changed the setting of her guitar again, blasting Danny back with a wave of ghost fire into the ground. He struggled upright and took to the air, shooting measured shots at Ember to try and distract her—and make himself look like he still had enough energy to fight. He needed to get away. He couldn't handle this—not after using so much energy trying to fight Skulker and Valerie. He needed to _rest_.

But Ember managed to hit him again with her ghost fire, then again, then again, and he slammed into another roof. And this time, he stayed down.

"I knew it," she gloated as she hovered above him. "You're weak, baby pop. And after I destroy you I'll reform my band and all the humans on Earth will be my slaves!"

And she raised her hand to strike the final chord.

Danny wasn't even aware of he was doing. All he felt was the last remnants of his energy gathering at his throat, charging…

"Ember…just…**_GO AWAY!"_** he shrieked, and for the forth time in his life he heard his cry accompanied by a high keening wail. Ember screamed as she blasted back, clutching her throat—

_No,_ Danny thought as his vision swam and he fell in a swoon. _I used the Ghostly Wail…_

And just before he fell unconscious he thought he heard the hum of an oncoming hoverboard, and felt a hand grab his wrist.

- - -

Danny felt someone poking him.

"He's been asleep too long, Dad," he thought he heard someone say. "I'm tired of waiting!"

Danny rolled over in his sleep and groaned. "Five more minutes," he mumbled to whoever was trying to wake him up. The voice sounded familiar. Not Mom, or Jazz, or Sam, but…

And the memories rushed back and he remembered they were dead.

His eyes flew open and he instantly tried to take to the air, but felt someone's hands press him down and stared into Valerie's angry green eyes.

"What were you _thinking_, Danny?" she began to growl, but he didn't stay to hear the rest of it. He sank down through a bed, aiming for the ground below—

—until he walloped his head against something very hard and painfully realized he had just hit a ghost shield.

Valerie tapped her foot impatiently. "Get back up here, Fenton," she growled. "There's a ghost shield surrounding this whole room. You're not going anywhere."

After a moment Danny poked his head through the bed and looked around. The walls were painted yellow, and he saw a computer desk next to a bureau across the room, and a small table next to the bed. The room looked unfamiliar, but there was a strange, familiar feel about it…

"Where am I?" he asked, confused, floating out of the bed and sitting down. Mr. Gray stood up from the computer desk's chair.

"In Fenton Works, Danny," he said gently. "Valerie brought you here when she found you unconscious."

Danny's eyes widened and he felt dizzy as he realized what that meant. No wonder this room felt familiar—it could have been his, or Jazz's, or…

"Wait—Valerie brought me here?" he asked, backtracking as Mr. Gray's words sunk in. "But why—"

"Don't you get it, Danny?" Valerie growled, poking him in the chest. "I had to save you _again_ because you got your butt kicked. You've got to stay here until you get stronger!"

"I didn't need to be saved," he said stubbornly. "I was doing just fine on my own. I took care of Ember, didn't I?"

"Yeah, and you've been asleep for four hours trying to recover from her! Face it, Fenton—you need help! Those ghosts _know_ you're weak, and staying out there like this is sui—" She stopped, abashed.

"Suicide," he finished for her glumly. He didn't need it so bluntly put.

"Valerie's right, Danny," Mr. Gray said after an uncomfortable pause. "You need a place to rest—and we want you to stay here. We'll turn on the house's ghost shield to protect you, and you'll be safe."

"That makes me no less than a prisoner," Danny said bitterly. Mr. Gray shook his head.

"You'd have complete access to the ghost shield's controls, Danny," he corrected. "You'll be able to come and go as you please…but you'll be safe while you recharge." He sighed. "Danny, this is still your home, and you're welcome to it. If you fight ghosts, you need to be at your full ability—and you can only get there if you let yourself rest!"

"I'll be fine," Danny repeated stubbornly.

"Danny, will you just listen to us?" Valerie snapped, poking him again. "We're your friends! And I'm not gonna let you get hurt just because of your stupid pride!"

"Look, it's nice of you to offer, but I'll be fine on my own, and I really need to leave!"

And as he looked at Mr. Gray, he saw something interesting in his pocket. Was that…a remote?

"You're not going anywhere, Fenton," Valerie growled. "You're exhausted!"

"Yes, Danny," Mr. Gray added. "You need at least a couple of days' recovery from all your injuries, and if you stay in the city, there _will_ be ghosts who will find you and not give you that time."

"But I need to protect Amity Park _from_ those ghosts!" Danny cried. "Who else will if I don't?"

"I will," Valerie said. "You're not the only ghost hunter here, you know."

"I won't let you get hurt, Valerie," he said automatically. Valerie glared at him and opened her mouth, but he didn't let her start. "And you should know by now I'm good at getting out of traps!"

And suddenly he dived into Mr. Gray's body and—yes! Mr. Gray _did_ have a remote in his pocket.

"Let's see…radar…weaponry…here we go! Ghost shield!" And he grinned as he heard a click and walked out of the room.

"You get out of my dad, Fenton!" Valerie snarled, blocking him with a ghost gun.

"You'd better be careful with that," Danny cautioned. He didn't want to do this, but he had to. "You remember what happened to me, after all."

Valerie's eyes widened as she realized what Danny meant and she dropped the gun. He quickly pushed her aside and nearly ran to the front door, and popped out of Mr. Gray, feeling rather drained from the possession but determined not to show it.

"What just happened?" Mr. Gray said, blinking. He obviously didn't remember a thing.

"Get out of the way, Dad!" Valerie shrieked from behind him, still in the house. Danny grinned at both of them.

"It's been nice talking to you! Let's _not_ do it again sometime!" he called cheerfully, and dived into the ground, flying through it as fast as he could, though he couldn't resist snickering at Valerie's cry of rage. He had to admit, it was kind of fun outsmarting her. However, he was too weak to both fly and be intangible for long, and soon flew back out, searching for a safe place to hide.

Where was he, anyway? It looked like some sort of warehouse…

"Oh, this is lovely!" he heard a rough female voice cry. "Look at all this meat!"

"I knew you'd like it," answered a male. Danny saw his breath and felt his stomach turn as he thought he recognized the voices—could that be the Lunch Lady and the Box Ghost?

He looked around a pile of boxes and blanched as he saw the two sitting across each other, a plate of meat in front of each and candles lit on the box the plates were balanced on.

"Oh, gross!" he cried, disgusted. "Are you guys on a _date?_"

"The ghost child!" the Box Ghost cried, pointing at him. "Now you will face my boxes of DOOOOOOM!"

Suddenly the pile of boxes Danny had been hiding behind glowed and buried him, bruising him everywhere. He tried to phase through them, but for some reason he remained as solid as ever. _Oh man,_ he thought. _Don't tell me I can't phase through stuff anymore…!_

He blasted the boxes aside, hands smoking green, and winced when he saw the Box Ghost flex imaginary muscles in front of the clapping Lunch Lady.

"Ew!" Danny complained, covering his eyes. "Of all the dates I had to walk into…"

"Beware!" shouted the Box Ghost, once again flexing before the Lunch Lady as she clasped her hands girlishly and tried to flutter her eyelashes. Corpses had looked more winsome.

Then she dropped the act and cackled. "Get him, dearie!"

"He shall not stand before the might of my cubic cardboard containers!" The Box Ghost raised both his hands above his head, and Danny quickly formed a shield around himself to defend him from another onslaught. However, as the second wave of boxes hit the shield it burst like a bubble and Danny fell to the ground, buried underneath.

But then again, maybe this time he should just _stay _under them…his brain was burning already at the thought of the Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady on a date without seeing more of it.

However, that seemed to be a bad idea. The boxes flew up and slammed into him once again, and he grunted from the impact.

"Beware!" yelled the Box Ghost again as Danny struggled to push them aside. "For I, the Box Ghost, shall finally bring you to your doooom!"

Danny groaned, mortified. He was getting his butt kicked by the Box Ghost. He was getting his butt kicked by the _Box Ghost_. This was even more embarrassing than the time Spectra dressed him up as a baby…

The boxes flew into the air one last time, bursting through the ceiling. Danny winced. It would really hurt if they slammed down on him.

"Pie?" he distantly heard the Lunch Lady ask the Box Ghost.

Then the boxes fell.

And during that split second between consciousness and unconsciousness Danny realized that this meant Box Lunch might be born someday, and he was almost glad to black out.

— — — — — —

_Marisa's note: _

_God, that last part was fun. I hope we burned your brains with the date as much as it burned Danny's!  
_


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

"_You don't know what you're getting into here."_

- - -

"I'm gonna kill him for this," Valerie growled as she followed the bleeping light on her new ghost radar. She'd been tracking Fenton since he left the house, and frankly, she was reaching her limit. He needed to stop running away and instead stay put! After all, she had a report due and it couldn't get done if she was busy chasing a vagrant, thickheaded ghost.

She flew over a collection of warehouses, searching for some sign of ghostly activity by sight, since the radar wasn't fine-tuned enough yet to pinpoint the exact location of a ghost. Then she saw the roof of a building explode.

She nodded to herself. "There he is."

She kicked her booster rockets into gear, yanked out her infamous bazooka and set it to net, and dove straight down into the mess.

"Finally found you, Fenton! You can't hide from me!" she cried dramatically, but stopped as she saw the strange scene before her. The Box Ghost was posing in front of the Lunch Lady, flexing his arms and chest, while the female ghost oohed and aahed appreciatively. The two of them stood smirking before a pile of boxes, and Valerie could just see a white boot poking out from underneath…

Unconscious. _Again_.

"You lost to those two losers?" she snickered. "If this doesn't teach you that you need help…"

"BEWARE!" interrupted the Box Ghost loudly. "For I, the Box Ghost, will—"

"Can it, loser," Valerie said, and activated her wrist gun to blast both ghosts into a wall. Before the two could so much as blink she sucked them into the thermos, rattling it after she screwed on the lid.

She turned to the pile of boxes and blasted them into little pieces, revealing the battered boy beneath.

"I'm taking no chances this time," she said, and quickly trapped him in a net before heading home.

- - -

Back in Fenton Works Valerie nibbled on the tip of her pencil, trying to focus on the boring project in front of her instead of on the ghost boy sleeping on the guest bed.

She wanted to _pound_ him. He should have been _avoiding_ ghosts now, not fighting them anyway and nearly…uh…re-dying in the process! Why couldn't he understand he was too weak to fight? (And once again she ignored the little part of her that said, _Well, you'd ignore that too!_)

Danny shifted in his sleep and Valerie perked, watching to see if he'd wake up. However, he only mumbled something and turned.

Valerie groaned and glared at him. She'd been waiting for him to wake up for three hours already! She felt like shooting him—_that'd_ certainly wake him up! But no, she shouldn't shoot him. Shooting Danny was bad.

Well, at least she had convinced her father to stay downstairs this time. What had Danny been thinking by overshadowing her father? She'd expect something that low from the ghost kid, but not from her friend…only Danny _was_ the ghost kid. Oh, this was confusing…even though she _knew_ in her head the ghost kid was Danny, she still felt that edge of hatred when she saw the white hair and black costume.

Danny turned over again, this time turning to the right, muttering something unintelligible again. He looked for all the world like a normal kid who was taking a badly needed nap.

No, not normal. He was curled defensively, almost huddled, as though even in sleep he was trying to protect himself. What must it have been like, fighting all that time, even when his own family was determined to destroy him? When the town hated him? When _she_ hated him?

She'd gotten into a ton of trouble when her dad found out her secret. What would have happened to him had his family known about his?

She shook her head and picked up her pencil, determinedly turning away from Danny and the questions he made her ask. All she needed to think about now was that he was here and he needed help—nothing else.

But she couldn't keep her mind focused as her gaze continually slid to the unconscious boy. He'd been so desperate to escape the last time she'd found him…desperate to go fight ghosts. Was that really all that was left of him? Just a need to hunt ghosts, a need to protect Amity Park?

_Where was her friend in there? _

Danny groaned again, and her eyes widened when she saw him blink awake. He looked confused for a moment, probably wondering where he was, until his brain turned back on and he jumped into the air, ready to fly through the roof—

"OW!"

—and instead smashed into the invisible ghost shield surrounding the bed.

"Good morning, Danny," Valerie said smugly as he glared at her, rubbing his head. "Aren't you going to thank me for saving your sorry butt _again_?"

He grimaced and crossed his arms.

"I was doing fine," he muttered, sitting down.

"Yeah, getting your butt kicked by the Box Ghost is a definite sign you're doing fine," she shot back. He flinched.

"That was just luck."

"Not from what I saw! You were beaten by a bunch of _boxes_! Face it, Danny. You need a safe place to rest!"

"Fine," he said sourly. "Keeping me locked up is a _great_ way to prove it's safe."

"We're only forcing you because you're an idiot who won't let people help him!" She slammed her fist into the table angrily. "You're staying inside the ghost shield until Dad says you've recovered, and you're coming back here when you're not hunting ghosts, got it?"

She cocked her head. "Where _have_ you been staying?"

He glared at her. "None of your business."

She glared back and snorted. "Fine. It doesn't matter anyway, 'cause now you're staying here."

"No I'm not!"

"Yes you are! The _Box Ghost_ was able to kick your butt!" She loved rubbing it in. "Don't you think that's a sign you need a better place to stay, to recharge?"

"Um…"

"See? I'm right and you're wrong! You've been fighting twenty-four seven and you're only going to get weaker if you don't rest up! Now, why won't you stay here?"

"Because you're gonna get hurt!" he yelled, exasperated.

"Uh, gee, and you haven't?" Valerie snapped back.

"That's different! I'm dead!"

"You weren't dead _before_ and you still fought. You even fought me!" She glared at him. "And I'm still angry at you for telling my dad, you know."

"It was for your own good. You would have died!"

"So this is for your own good too! I didn't want you to stop me, but you did it anyway. Well, now we're going to help you whether you like it or not!"

"Valerie…"

He looked away.

Finally! Her arguments were breaking through!

"Face it, Fenton, you need my help and you know it!" she growled, pressing her advantage. Danny groaned and hung his head.

"Well?" she snapped, impatient.

He sighed. "Okay, okay, I won't leave."

"And I'll put on the house's ghost shield so the other ghosts can't come for you." _And so you won't be able to leave either_, she added silently, pressing a green button on her carefully placed remote.

"So I'm stuck in _two_ ghost shields?" he asked, knocking on the one surrounding the bed.

"Just one. But first you have to promise me not to overshadow anyone—especially me or my dad."

He hesitated.

"…Okay. I won't," he said finally, and gave her a pained look. "Now can I get out of here?"

She pressed a blue button and Danny flew off the bed, straight for the remote.

"OW!" he yelled as his hand smacked into a third ghost shield.

Valerie smirked. "That trick won't work twice. ALL the controls for the house ghost shield are shielded from you."

"Darn it," he muttered, hovering in the air next to her.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine by the day after tomorrow. Dad said so."

"And what am I supposed to do until then?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. Just do something that doesn't involve fighting ghosts."

He paused in thought for a moment, then gave her a hopeful look. "Can I play Doomed?"

She shrugged again. "Knock yourself out."

He grinned, and disappeared through the floor. A moment later his head popped back up, and it looked for all the world like he was blushing.

"Um…where's a computer?"

- - -

In the Ghost Zone, Spectra smiled sweetly. "Now Ember, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation as for why the ghost boy defeated you despite being barely a month old. It's not that you're worthless."

"He used some voice attack I haven't heard before," Ember croaked. "He shouldn't be able to do things I can't!"

"He outdid you in your own specialty? You poor thing. You need a hug." Spectra wrapped her arms around Ember.

Ember shoved Spectra away angrily. "Don't touch me!" she yelled, and her voice cracked. "I'm perfectly fine!" She resolutely ignored the fact that her voice had cracked again, and now sounded gravelly. "I don't need your sympathy…"

"But you've had your powers annihilated and everyone's going to think you're worthless! I mean, even the Box Ghost managed to defeat him."

"He… did?" Ember looked devastated.

Spectra patted her on the shoulder. "You need something to pick you up. I know just the thing."

She handed Ember a pint of double chocolate ice cream and a spoon.

Ember bit her lip and grabbed it. With a muttered, barely heard "thank you," she took off, nursing the ice cream like a child nursing from its mother's breast.

Spectra's sympathetic smile changed to vicious—and victorious.

Beside her Bertrand appeared and applauded appreciatively.

"Ah, teen misery," Spectra said fondly, admiring her freshly improved face in a mirror. "I can't wait to taste more of it."

"The ghost kid's weak, so Casper High will be unprotected and ripe for the picking," Bertrand said.

Spectra's smile never wavered. "Well, we should go have a checkup appointment with the kids, don't you think?"

- - -

_Marisa's note:_

_Hope you liked the chapter, and please remember to review! See ya on the fifth of May... _


	10. Chapter Nine

_Marisa's note: it did NOT help that I wrote this while listening to 'Holding Out for a Hero' from Shrek 2. Seriously, don't get it stuck in your head when reading this. I mean it! _

_And sorry this is so late. I went out with my friends to play in a park (sadly, I'm not joking) and forgot to upload before I left my room...blegh. Anyway, next chapter will be out on May 19th, 8 pm PST! _

_- - -_

**Chapter Nine**

"_Your doubt. Your misery. It's delicious!"_

- - -

Danny hovered next to Valerie impatiently as she swallowed a mouthful of cereal.

"Can't you hurry?" he complained. "I want to get this over with."

Valerie took another leisurely bite and raised an eyebrow. "Why are you in such a rush? You've been spending the last two days playing Doomed."

_It's just not the same without Tucker and Sam,_ Danny thought to himself, but he didn't dare tell her _that_.

"I'm bored," he said instead, flying out of the room to find her backpack. "I need to go out there and fight ghosts."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "And Dad thinks _I'm_ obsessive."

"I heard that!"

"You were supposed to." She sighed as Danny returned, holding the backpack to her hopefully, looking rather like a puppy holding its leash for a walk.

Valerie tried to hide a smile at the thought. "Look," she said, "the more time I spend listening to you complain the more time it takes me to eat breakfast."

Danny backed off a few feet. "Okay," he sighed. "But remember, the deal is I stay with you at school today and then I'm off on my own until I need to rest again." He glared at her. "So don't get detention! I've had enough detentions to last me twenty lifetimes."

"Don't worry, the new teacher's not as bad as Lancer."

"_No one _could be as bad as Lancer."

Valerie nodded and spooned up the last of her cereal. "Okay, let's go."

"Finally!" Danny glanced at the clock. "Uh, you missed the bus."

"Who needs the bus when you've got a hoverboard? You used to fly to school too." She walked outside.

"Yeah, and you used to shoot at me. I ended up being late anyway. Can we get going?"

"Ha!" she yelled, click her heels together. "Let's see if you can keep up with me, punk!"

Danny's eyes glowed brighter at the challenge. "My friends clocked me at a hundred and twelve miles an hour. Don't feel bad when you lose!" They both took off.

About five minutes later Danny landed behind the bleachers in the football field, panting heavily as Valerie shot down beside him a moment later.

"Gotcha," he gasped, managing to smirk. Valerie glared at him and recalled her armor.

"I'll get you next time, Fenton." She jerked her head towards the school. "Now go invisible and follow me."

Danny sighed. "Fine."

- - -

Danny leaned against the classroom wall and stifled a yawn. Somehow this new teacher managed to be even more boring than Lancer, which was quite a feat. Danny wished he could go ghost hunting instead, but he didn't want to break his promise.

He'd never break a promise again.

Anyway, Valerie could talk to him at any time and if he didn't respond she'd get really mad. And he had to admit, he _did_ need a safer place to stay. If Skulker had found him while he slept, he'd probably be a pelt right now, and he didn't want to think about the other ghosts…

As the teacher rambled Danny's mind wandered. He had to get Valerie to give up ghost hunting somehow, that much was obvious. Valerie was a ghost hunter in the awful future. If he could make her stop being a ghost hunter…well, that'd be one more thing that wasn't how it should have been. Plus ghost hunting got her hurt all the time, and he couldn't stand seeing her get injured…but he had to do it in a way that wouldn't get her mad. She was scary when she got angry—and he definitely didn't want to provoke her into trying to destroy him again.

Then the bell rang, cutting the teacher off mid lecture. Thank goodness! Danny quickly went intangible and followed her to her next class.

But she didn't do anything interesting during the next hour either. It was a little annoying. Why on Earth had she asked him to come to school with her? Was she honestly trying to make him get an education? He really couldn't see the point of it now, especially with _math_. Ugh. He rubbed his head and turned through the wall, deciding that even Valerie's wrath wasn't worth trying to comprehend calculus.

He flew around the school, practicing his intangibility and invisibility, pleased. His powers were just about back to when he was alive, though he still felt weak, like how he felt when he first got his powers from the accident. Funny, that…he'd thought that being a full ghost would have made him more powerful, but it seemed to be the reverse. Oh, well—Mr. Gray said he'd go back to normal soon enough, and that he was weak because he had just died. Now it seemed the annoying slur—ghost child—was a lot more appropriate. He shook his head and sighed.

Finally the lunch bell rang and Danny followed Valerie out to the quad, where she sat at Paulina's table.

"Hi, Valerie," Kwan greeted her, smiling.

"Hey, Kwan," she answered, and for some reason Danny felt a slight twinge of jealousy. He didn't like the way Kwan was looking at Valerie.

_Don't be stupid,_ he told himself. _They're friends, for crying out loud. Of course he's glad to see her._

Wrapped in his thoughts, Danny didn't notice the awkward silence until Kwan broke it.

"What's the matter?" he asked Valerie worriedly. "You look a little down."

Valerie sighed. "I was thinking about Danny."

Wait, what?

Dash sighed too. "Yeah, I miss wailing on Fenton. He took wedgies like a man." Danny didn't quite know what to make of that.

"His friend took me to that bookstore when he was popular," said Kwan helpfully, looking at Valerie.

"The Goth girl?" Paulina giggled. "It was fun to steal him from her. She was so in denial." She pouted. "He so had a crush on me, but he still didn't tell me what happened to his family."

"Yeah, you even visited the wimp," Dash agreed. "He owed you."

Why that…Danny's hands curled into fists, but he managed to keep himself in check. He couldn't beat up Dash.

Wait a minute, no secret to keep, no more real consequences to getting a little payback…

Valerie twitched. "You don't miss Danny at all?" she asked, trying to mask her anger as surprise. This was not going the way she had planned.

Paulina sighed. "I am sorry he's dead. The ghost boy used to show up when he was around. I've seen him so little recently!" She sighed again, saddened.

"Yeah, Danny Phantom's cool." Dash grinned. "Remember when he helped us save our families from that weird ghost ship?"

"I was out of town," Valerie answered. "But didn't _Fenton_ organize that?"

"Yeah, but then he ran away."

"Actually," Kwan interrupted, "the pirates made him walk the plank. I saw it with Sam from the blimp."

"Yeah, the ghost boy said he saved him," Paulina added. "Lucky… I got to grab hold of the ghost boy too, but so did all these other people! I wanted him all to myself."

Danny sighed. Paulina still liked the wrong him—not that it mattered now. A ghost and a human together? Impossible. He was dead, after all, and the dead didn't make out with the living.

Kwan blinked. "Did you hear something? I thought I just heard a sigh…"

"I didn't hear anything," Valerie said, laughing nervously. "Well, I need to go… brush my hair. See you guys in class!"

"See you, Valerie!" called Kwan, waving as she walked away. Star looked a little annoyed.

Once inside the school Valerie went into a deserted classroom.

"Danny?" she called.

"Yeah?" He appeared in midair. "Was that why you wanted me to come to school?"

She grimaced. "Yeah. Those shallow…but they like the ghost you."

"The ghost me _is_ me. It has been ever since the accident."

She looked away.

He sighed. "Look, I know you hated 'Danny Phantom,' but I didn't mean to wreck your life. I was just trying to stop the dog, but Sam was right—I made a horrible dog catcher."

Before Valerie could answer someone screamed. Instantly Valerie recalled her armor and Danny phased outside, looking for the source. The screaming became louder as other voices joined, and Danny watched as kids scrambled everywhere to get away from—

"Spectra!" he yelped involuntarily. Spectra paid no heed to him, focusing on her current prey—Paulina. The poor girl was clutching her face and screaming.

"Yes, that's it," Spectra crowed. "Your flawless skin is ruined. You'll never be beautiful again and without your beauty you're _nothing_." Spectra held up a bloodied claw as Paulina collapsed, sobbing.

"SPECTRA!" Danny roared, and fired one ghost ray after the other, which the therapist easily dodged.

"My, your aim isn't the only part of you that's gotten worse," she mocked. "Bertrand!"

Suddenly a huge green puma slammed down on Danny's chest, smashing both of them into the ground, but Danny sank down below before Bertrand's claws could do any damage. As he resurfaced he saw Valerie shooting furiously and Bertrand attempting to dodge.

Good. Valerie could keep the stupid cat busy. Meanwhile, he had to get Paulina to a doctor, or at least call an ambulance! Paulina's face was bleeding and she was still crying.

"Paulina, calm down!" he called, and tried to reach her, but Spectra blasted him away, laughing.

"You think you can save her?" she cackled. "You couldn't even save your family! All those useless heroics and you couldn't even do a thing to keep all those people from dying. My, there isn't anyone left who cares about a worthless thing like you at all!"

"Shut up!" both Danny and Valerie screamed, and the two shot at her. She managed to dodge and Bertrand jumped Valerie, knocking her to the ground even as her armor shocked him.

"You're not even half human anymore," Spectra scoffed as she and Danny circled each other in the air. "You're just a ghost, and a _worthless_ one at that. Why, if only your parents could see you now! You've become the thing they hated. No, that's right; they always hated you, didn't they? I've heard _all about_ how they hunted you down like an animal."

"_Shut up!"_ he screamed, firing more shots, but they missed Spectra by a mile. Great. Now he was wasting energy _and_ showing just how lousy a ghost fighter he was.

"You couldn't even save a little human girl from a few cuts," Spectra mocked. "And you let your family die! I know all about it."

No. She couldn't. He hadn't told anyone, except for Vlad…

_It's just Spectra's spell!_ cried a tiny, ignored part of him. _Break it!_

But he knew he couldn't, because…because she was right. He _had_ let them die. If he had just tried a little harder, beaten Phantom sooner, hadn't been so _useless_…

"You know it's true, don't you?" Spectra smirked just before she blasted him into the school's wall. Danny barely felt it. He was too caught up in his thoughts, too deep in to notice her hovering above him, unable to hear her laugh as her wrinkles disappeared and her hair became more vibrant than ever…

He was worthless. He'd let everyone die, and he should have died completely instead of running the risk of becoming Phantom, who had been so _sure_ Danny would become him, who existed even after Danny swore he wouldn't, whose evil laughter and terrifying words haunted his nightmares, and all of it would still happen no matter what he did, because he was as worthless and weak as Spectra said so sweetly and he should never have been born…

Memories swirled in his head, memories of all the times he messed up, of all the people who got hurt because he failed. And the explosion played in his head over and over, the one time he could have proven he wasn't a stupid mess-up but instead he let them die…

He curled against the wall, trying to hide from Spectra's mental and physical attacks. He couldn't take it. He _couldn't_.

And the worst of it was that she really _was_ right. He had tried his hardest and he still failed, they had still died. She was right, she was right! Even Valerie would die, and it was all _hopeless_.

"You're toast, you stupid cat!" he heard someone yell, and heard Bertrand scream as he was sucked into a thermos. However, the knowledge didn't affect him. He just hoped Spectra would go away.

But she only continued to hover over him, seeming to prefer picking him apart rather than physically attacking him.

"You're just a _buffet_ of misery," she gloated. "Do you think that suffering is _penance? _I'm so sorry, Danny, but nothing you do is going to make up for killing your family, including your sister. You were such a bad brother, thinking that she called you a _loser_ when she cared about you so much. Even though you really _are_ one."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he cried, to whom he didn't know. "I—I—"

"They're gone. They couldn't forgive you even if you were worth forgiving."

Danny curled into a tighter ball, whimpering.

"_Get away from him, you sick old hag!"_

And suddenly Spectra was blasted into the wall above him and smashed into the ground.

"So you're the _amateur_ ghost hunter who can't even catch this loser?" Spectra began, shoving herself upright and back into the air. "Please. You're a joke."

"Shut up, witch! You couldn't hope to beat him in an honest fight, so who's weak?" And with that Valerie shot a barrage of missiles, most of which Spectra dodged—and some of which hit Danny.

"Danny!" Valerie cried, landing next to him. He didn't look at her. He deserved the shots anyway—it wasn't like he could help her. He should have just died…

"Even your aim is horrible." Spectra scoffed. "I love teenagers, because you can't do anything. Your failures… why, I could just eat you all up!"

"_Eat this, you witch!"_ Valerie screamed, forming her shoulder gun and hitting Spectra square in the chest. Spectra smashed into a tree across the yard with a groan, and Valerie fired a second time, a third, pounding her further into the tree. Then she whipped out the thermos, activated it, and Spectra disappeared with a scream.

Danny didn't move. There was no point. Even with Spectra and her influence gone, he knew he was a complete failure. He'd been so worried about protecting people, protecting Valerie, and it turned out she was the one who had to save him. He couldn't even protect himself! What did he think he was doing here, anyway?

"Why couldn't I have just died?" he asked the sky, opening his eyes.

Valerie landed next to him and gave him a kick. Danny grunted, surprised, and looked up at her. That hurt!

"You shut up too!" she growled angrily. "If you're only going to say stupid stuff then just be quiet and come back home!" She grabbed his arm. "Get up!"

He let her drag him to his feet. She jumped back on her hoverboard and flew into the air, dragging him with her by his arm. He didn't fight.

"You can't listen to anything she says!" Valerie fumed, shaking him. "You're smarter than that, Danny! If you hadn't folded up like that you would have kicked her butt. You're not worthless!" She grimaced. "That witch…"

He was silent.

"But she's right," he said finally, his voice small and weak. "I'm just a ghost. I _am _worthless."

Valerie snorted. "Yeah, you're a ghost, but you're still Danny! And you're not worthless!"

"I'm not?"

"Yeah. You're not."

"How do you know that?"

'Because I say so!" She shook his arm violently. He gave up and started flying next to her, but she didn't let go. "You can't listen to her. She's the only one who thinks that!"

"Thirty percent of the town thinks I'm a menace," Danny pointed out.

"Well, that's only because they don't know better. You shouldn't suffer because people are idiots! Why are you so hard on yourself?"

"My family died because of me!" he cried, yanking his arm away. "I couldn't beat my… the ghost fast enough to save them! And then I was out of power and I had to watch them blow up! I failed! I let them _die_!"

The hoverboard stopped, and Valerie grabbed him again. "A ghost killed them? Who?"

"He's gone."

"_Who was it?"_

Danny was silent. She shook him. _"Who?"_

"Me. I did it, okay?" He tried half-heartedly to break loose. She would hate him now. He deserved her hatred. It would even be a relief. If she locked him up in a thermos then everyone would be safe, right? Maybe that would prevent that future.

"You'd better explain right now, Danny Fenton, or so help me…"

Danny sighed, already regretting his words. "Fine. My evil alternate future self was trying to make me turn into him." He studied her face, looking for the hate. "We got sent to the future by this ghost called Clockwork and met Phantom—the evil me. Future-you was fighting him. I said I'd never turn into him but he came back in time to make sure the explosion happened anyway, since the explosion made me let Vlad take away my human emotions and that made me turn into Phantom." He took a ragged breath. "I couldn't stop him!" he cried. "I tried, I caught him, but it was too late! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Valerie stared at him in shock.

"Wait, Mr. Masters took away your human emotions?" she asked finally.

"Not…not this time around. But the alternate me…after the explosion, I couldn't take the hurt." He turned his eyes away for a moment, then looked back at Valerie's face. She only looked confused.

"Well… you're not going to turn into some evil ghost," she said finally. "I'm not going to let you." She shook him.

"Ow!"

"Swear you won't turn into him!"

"I already swore to my family!"

She dropped him. He hovered, trying to read her. "What?"

Her face was carefully neutral. "So you tried to destroy your ghost half so you couldn't become an evil ghost."

He sighed and hung his head. "Yeah. And it didn't work."

She shook her head and pulled his head up, staring straight into his eyes. "Danny, you were willing to go so far you tried to kill your ghost half to keep that promise! If you've got the guts to do that then you definitely shouldn't listen to Spectra. You're not going to turn into Phantom because you're doing everything you can to _not_. You've proven it. You've got guts! So act like it! Don't you want your family to be proud of you?"

"How could they be proud of me? I failed them! I'm a ghost!" He gestured wildly, pulling himself out of her grasp. "Don't you see?"

"I see _you_, Danny Fenton. Phantom. Whatever. You're still Danny. Danny's not a bad guy. Danny's not a loser. You heard all those kids at school. They think you rock."

Danny gave her a blank look, and looked down. Then he blinked as he saw someone running down the street after them.

"Ghost boy!" Paulina called, waving frantically. "Wait up!"

Danny looked at her. Thin white steri-strips stretched across her face, but she only seemed pleased. "Thank you for saving me!" she called. "The nurse says my face will be fine!"

"See?" Valerie said, pointing at her. "You saved the day. Well, I saved the day, but we're a team now."

"A team?" Danny echoed.

"Yeah. The Red Hunter and Danny Phantom, Amity Park's resident superheroes." She paused and looked him straight in the eye. "_You're _a hero, Danny."

"I'm a hero?"

"Yes, you are. You gave your life to save Amity Park. You're a hero."

Him? A hero?

Danny looked down at Paulina, who was still waving ecstatically. He saw other kids behind her, all of them cheering when they saw him.

"Well, maybe," he said finally, giving a weak wave back.

Valerie smiled.


	11. Chapter Ten

_Marisa's note:__ see if you can count the references! There are only a couple, but hey, if you watch Xiaolin Showdown or know my other fandom you might give a chuckle...  
_

_Remember to review, and next chapter's out June 2nd!_

_And on a side note: research for this chapter was a blast. When you get to go to an arcade and play games for a couple hours in the name of accuracy the world is good... _

— — — — — —

**Chapter Ten  
**

"_You need to get out more often."_

- - -

The next day Danny sat curled on the living room couch, paying strict attention to the book he was reading while Valerie and her father ate breakfast.

"It's Saturday," Valerie called from the kitchen. "What do you want to do, Danny?"

Danny didn't look up. "Probably read my book unless a ghost shows up."

"What're you reading, anyway?"

" 'Ghost Hunting for Dimwits.' "

Valerie groaned. Her father got up from the table and walked into the living room.

"You'll do no such thing, young man," he said firmly. "Today you're going to do something that _doesn't_ involve ghost hunting."

Danny blinked. "Well, I could play Doomed, I guess…"

"No way!" Valerie yelled from the kitchen. "We're going to do something _interesting_."

"Hey, Doomed _is_ interesting!"

Valerie shook her head and ate the last of her cereal. "Danny, there's no way you're gonna keep playing that game," she said, wiping her mouth with her napkin as she walked into the living room. "We'll go to a theme park instead."

"A theme park?" Danny raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Valerie, I can _fly_. Why would I want to ride roller coasters?"

"Well, you're not going to spend all day playing Doomed," Valerie's father chided. Danny shrugged.

"It's not like I've got homework to do. Uh, ghost here?" He pointed at himself. "Fear me?" He wiggled his fingers in the air. Neither of them looked impressed.

"As Valerie said, today's Saturday," her father said, ignoring Danny completely and reaching for his wallet. "Go out and have some fun."

Danny blinked when the man handed him some money as well as to Valerie.

"I'm getting an allowance? Not even _my_ dad did that."

Valerie snickered.

While she finished the last of her breakfast her father pawed around in his closet, looking for some clothes for Danny to wear. After about fifteen minutes he came down the stairs, carrying an armful of gray sweatshirt, jeans, belt, and red hat.

"This is the best I can do," he said, and Danny stared at him for a minute before realizing that the man actually wanted him to put them on. Sighing, Danny carefully placed a bookmark on his page before he stood up and yanked the clothing on. Valerie walked in and burst out laughing.

"What?" Danny said self-consciously. Valerie tried to stifle her laughter, but it was hopeless. The jeans were _way_ too baggy, even with the belt valiantly trying to keep them around Danny's waist, and the sweatshirt was so long it hung down to his thighs. The red hat didn't help either, though it did manage to make him look like a sort of stoplight with his glowing green eyes.

"Nothing, nothing," Valerie giggled. "At least no one will recognize you in that getup."

Danny made a face, but sighed and followed Valerie out.

"People might notice I'm _glowing_ through the clothes, though," he pointed out as they walked down the street.

Valerie looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. "I doubt it."

He muttered something under his breath, but she ignored him in favor of deciding what to do. She supposed it was a good thing that he was still exhausted and guilt-tripping from that witch Spectra, because he couldn't really get up the energy to object to anything she asked. She could nag him to do anything right now…but what would he want to do? She wanted him to see that she had good ideas so he would listen to her in future instead of being an idiot.

Then she gave a very evil grin. She knew _exactly_ what to do.

- - -

"Give it up, ghost!" Valerie cried, landing a vicious flying kick, smashing them both to the ground. "I'm a ninth degree black belt! There's no way you can beat me!"

"Ha!" Danny smirked, blocking her second attack and firing back, sending her flying into the air. "I've got _way_ more experience than you. There's no way you'll win!" He continued firing, but Valerie managed to dodge his attacks and landed a fierce punch right to his head. Danny growled and fired a super charged shot, but Valerie managed to jump out of the way in time.

"Bet you never expected _this_!" she smirked, and quickly pressed a button to instantly transform into a giant robot, her antennae blasting rays of death and various deadly creatures everywhere. "HA! 16 hit combo! Beat _that_, ghost kid!"

"Oh, I will! I _rock _with Rockman!" Danny quickly pressed some buttons and moved the joystick and Rockman transformed into a different giant death robot, pulverizing Valerie's character.

"Bah!" she growled. "You just need to _Roll_ with the punches." She smashed a button and Roll took to the air, squishing Rockman to the right side of the screen with a cry.

Valerie sneaked a glance to the side and saw Danny grinning widely. Good. She'd thought he'd like playing Marvelous vs. Gabcom 2 against her.

She quickly turned back to the screen before Danny could smash her character into little pieces, and went to the offensive.

"Ha!" she yelled as Roll scored another combo hit. "Take that!"

"That was luck!" Danny answered, and switched to Roll too, laughing.

"Hey, Valerie!" called someone behind her. "What're you doing at the arcade?"

"Playing Marvelous vs. Gabcom 2," Valerie said, not bothering to turn around. "_Darn it!"_

"You just can't get with the _Beat_, can you?" Danny grinned as he summoned the blue bird, making his Roll combine with it to make another vehicle of death, though this was a plane. Valerie growled and tried to defend herself.

"Who're you playing with?" asked Star inquisitively, leaning over the machine to glance at Danny's face. Then she froze.

"Hey, could you get out the way?" Danny asked, distracted. "I can't see the screen."

Star darted back to Kwan's side. "It's Danny Phantom!" she hissed.

"No way!" Kwan whispered. "Valerie's playing a fighter game with _Danny Phantom?_"

"Yeah!" Star dug into her purse. "Paulina will _kill_ me if I don't tell her about this!" She ran to the door, pressing a number on her speed dial as she went.

"Uh, maybe we should leave," Danny whispered to Valerie, finally noticing the growing crowd of kids gathering around them.

"Not until we're out of quarters, ghost boy," Valerie said firmly. Then, while he was distracted, she hit another set of buttons, dealing more damage and another combo to Danny's character. "Take _that_, you rock'n'roll wannabe!"

Danny glared at her. "Hey, the only wannabe around here's _Ember_!" So saying he focused back on the game, but he couldn't help but eyeball each kid as a growing crowd gathered in a semicircle around the machine.

"Hey, ghost boy, pay attention!" Valerie growled, pausing the fight just long enough to snap her fingers in front of his face. "I'm kicking your butt!"

"Er, sorry." Then he grinned. "You're pretty good!"

"What, you thought I'd be bad 'cause I'm a girl?"

"No, a friend of mine was really good at videogames." Danny fell silent a moment, then shook his head and smiled. "But I've got a secret weapon!"

Smirking, he went intangible and flew into the videogame, baggy clothes dropping to the floor in the process.

"What the—oh, you _didn't_!" she yelled, shaking her fist as she saw Roll's eyes now glow green.

"Hey, all's fair in love, war, and videogames!" Danny called cheerfully, his voice magnified with the machine's speakers.

Valerie growled. "That's a cheap move, Danny Fe—Phantom!" Danny only laughed in reply.

"Hey, where's the ghost boy?" Paulina cried, pushing forward until she took up Danny's space at the console.

"In _there_," Valerie snorted. She managed to hit another giant death robot combo, but Danny-possessed Roll only went intangible and the attack fell though. She glared at the screen. "And that's cheating and you know it!"

"Go Danny Phantom!" Star yelled, leading an impromptu cheer. "We love Phantom yes we do, we love Phantom how 'bout you!" She finished with a cute pose and the rest of the crowd cheered. However, the cheers only distracted Danny, and Valerie was able to pummel him once again.

"So how come you're playing videogames with Danny Phantom, Valerie?" Kwan asked.

"It's for my dad's new job at Fenton Works," she replied easily. "I'm supposed to be the liaison with Danny Phantom since we're both protecting Amity Park." That was Mr. Master's clever cover story, and she would stick to it!

"You get to spend time with Danny Phantom?" Paulina sighed dreamily. Then she turned to Valerie. "Can I hang out with you too, Valerie? Please?" The popular girl looked longingly at the screen.

"Maybe," Valerie said, concentrating harder on the game. She realized she wasn't sure if she wanted to share, and anyway, she'd found out when she was poor that Paulina really wasn't a very nice person. Sure, the girl had a crush on Danny Phantom (and how wrong was that? A human and a ghost together, impossible!), but she might say something wrong and hurt him. Danny was still very delicate.

Valerie wished she was better at people stuff. Still, she'd follow the plan. Spectra had been a major setback, but maybe she hadn't been as harmful as Valerie had thought. After all, now Danny was out in public _not_ fighting ghosts, and he was even having fun doing it. Valerie was very glad about that—just because he was dead didn't mean he had to be all morbid about it.

"Hey, Val, you falling asleep or something?" yelled Danny through the speakers, and Valerie realized Danny had fully taken advantage of her momentary musings to drop her hitpoints to the grave.

"You wish, ghost!" she growled back, and began to do some _serious_ damage, though she knew that she'd still lose. Like heck she'd admit it, though!

"Hey, cool! Danny Phantom's here?" asked a boy behind her—Dash. It felt like half the school was here.

_Perfect_.

And that was when the image of a strange green-skinned, white-haired ghost filled the screen.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he howled through the speakers. "Hello, ghost child! I, Technus, Master of All Things Electronic and Beeping, will defeat you in this videogame now you no longer have the help of your allies!"

"_Technus_?" Danny growled, jumping out of his character angrily. "How'd you get out of Doomed?"

"Once the harddrive was cleaned I, Technus, was able to escape Level Zero!"

Danny glanced at Valerie. "You guys gave away my computer, didn't you?"

Valerie glared at him. "Well, how were we supposed to know you trapped a ghost in it?"

"Wait, what's going on?" asked Paulina. "Is that another bad ghost?"

"Crudely put, but correct!" Technus yelled triumphantly. "Now I, Technus, will—"

"—Shut up and get pounded!" Danny interrupted, and fired several ghost rays at the ghost's direction. Valerie quickly slipped in another quarter and attempted to use her character to help Danny fight, but Technus merely went intangible and escaped her attacks.

"Darn it, this isn't fair!" Valerie growled. If only she could equip an ecto-launcher, or at least a ghost gun—!

Danny, however, didn't seem hampered at all. "You're not the _only_ one who can use his ghost powers, remember?" he catcalled, and continued firing at Technus, forcing him off the edge of the screen. Danny looked confused for a moment, then followed.

"Where _are_ you?" Valerie called angrily, spinning around, trying to find the sound of Danny's ghost rays. "Get visible already!"

"Whoa!" yelped one of the players from the other side of the arcade. Valerie raced over to see Danny and Technus fighting on the huge screen of Dance Armageddon, Danny using the arrows as cover as Technus jumped around, trying to not get hit by the scrolling arrows on his own side.

"Try squishing him!" she yelled impulsively, stepping on a panel herself, smacking Technus on the head.

"Ow!" the ghost yelped.

"You've got two left feet, Technus!" Danny called almost cheerfully, and blasted Technus into another row of arrows as the players began to play again, now trying to squish Technus instead of scoring points.

"My body has both a left foot and a right!" Technus retorted, dodging an arrow. "But there are other games, whelp!"

He jumped to the left and Danny followed again, both fading away as the exhausted players wiped their brows. Valerie looked around again—

"They're in Condo of the Dead!" someone yelled, but Valerie managed to get to the machine before anyone could interfere. It was a first-person shooter!

"Finally, a game I can really fight in!" she grinned, and shoved more quarters into the slots.

"Dan_ny! _Dan_ny!_ Dan_ny!_" the crowd cheered behind her, led by Paulina. Valerie hoped he heard as she armed her gun and started to fire at the quickly fading technophile.

"Not so tough without someone to show you the ropes, huh, Technus?" Danny taunted.

"We'll see who laughs last, ghost child!" Technus retorted, and jumped out of the game, apparently deciding that running away was a better option than staying to get blasted to bits by both Valerie and Danny.

Danny jumped out as well, and both flew through the roof as the crowd rushed outside to see the end of the fight. Valerie ran to her bag and yanked out a thermos, then joined the group.

"Danny, here!" she yelled, and tossed the container up. Danny caught it smoothly and smirked as Technus turned to fly away.

"I, Technus, will escape to fight another—"

"Time to pull the plug, Technus!" Danny yelled as he unscrewed the lid and sucked the ghost in.

"_Noooo!_ I'll be back, ghost child!" Technus wailed just before disappearing into the container. Danny capped the lid and shook his head, rolling his eyes.

"Where exactly does he expect to go?" he asked Valerie as he landed. Valerie shrugged.

"That was so cool!" said someone behind them. Danny turned to see Dash grinning wildly and Paulina staring at him with goo-goo eyes. He grinned and blushed slightly as the crowd cheers grew louder and louder.

"Uh, think we should head back to Fenton Works and drop Technus off?" he asked Valerie, trying to remain focused. Valerie checked her pockets and shrugged.

"We don't really have a choice," she answered. "I'm out of quarters."

"Here, use mine!" Dash said, dumping a handful into Danny's hands. "We can play Condo of the Dead!"

"Use mine too!"

"And me!"

"I wanna play against Danny Phantom!"

"No fair! _I_ wanna play!"

"I-I think we have enough quarters," Danny stuttered as his hands filled with silver. He sent a questioning glance at Valerie, and she grinned.

"Let's go play, then," she said with a smirk. "After all, I _said_ we'd play until we're out of quarters…"

The crowd cheered and dragged Danny back inside, Valerie snatching the thermos before anything could nudge the cap open. She grinned triumphantly and followed.

- - -

Finally it was time for both of them to head home. With much groaning from the crowd and promises to return tomorrow, she dragged the boy away, grinning.

"What?" he asked when he saw her face.

She hid her smile. "Nothing."

"No, seriously, what?"

She smirked, frustrating Danny even more.

"_What?"_

"Nothing!" she repeated, but she still couldn't stop smiling.

Mission Get Danny to Have a Life was a success!

"Wait, ghost boy!" someone called, running after them. Valerie and Danny turned and saw Paulina carrying a pile of clothing Danny realized was his own.

"I think these are yours," Paulina said, her eyes suddenly shining allure. Then she ruined the picture by wrinkling her nose. "Ugh, I can't believe you wore this, though! These clothes are _so_ uncool."

Danny looked taken aback and shot a glance at Valerie. The ghost hunter only shrugged and took the clothing away from Paulina.

"It's the most we have right now," she said airily. "Danny doesn't really need _clothes_."

"Well, I refuse to let you go around like that," Paulina said firmly, keeping eye contact with Danny. "Tomorrow morning meet me at the mall. You need a makeover!"

"A _makeover?_ But…" Danny shot Valerie another helpless look.

_Well, it'll get him out of the house again,_ Valerie thought, _and it'll get him to socialize…_

"Tomorrow at ten," Paulina said firmly, pressing against Danny's side. Danny backed away a half step, a strange expression on his face.

"All…all right, Paulina," Valerie said finally, wondering why she hesitated. "_We'll_ meet you there."

Paulina smiled and looked like she'd say more, but Danny grabbed Valerie and took off before anything else could be said.

"See you tomorrow, Danny!" Paulina called, waving. Danny gave a half wave back and was quiet the whole flight home.

- - -

Technus floated through the Ghost Zone, arms crossed.

"Once again I, Technus, have been defeated by the ghost child!" he grumbled huffily. "However, I, Technus, will soon get my reven—"

"Oh, be silent!" snapped a deep voice behind him, and a missile knocked him down from behind. Technus pushed himself back up angrily and whirled around.

"Who dares attack Technus, Master of Technology?"

"_Me,_ Skulker, Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!" Skulker growled.

Technus grimanced. "I, Technus, already know who you are!"

Skulker smirked. "So the ghost child has defeated you?"

Technus glared at him. "Hasn't he defeated you as well?"

"One of his friends tampered with my operating system!" the hunting ghost growled. "I _hate_ gorillas!"

Technus paused. "Your operating system? Maybe I can help you."

Skulker gave Technus a calculating look.

"We will meet in my lair after I buy a magazine with an article about purpleback gorillas," he said after a moment. "But if you fail, I will use your head as a trophy for my wall!" With that Skulker's jets activated and he shot into the air, leaving Technus to muse about this new potential partnership alone.


	12. Chapter Eleven

_Marisa's note: nothing to say about this one but it was fun (as always) to write. See ya June 16th_—_well, probably. It depends on how evil our finals are. Because of that you'll be able to check the status of Chapter Twelve by looking in my profile for updates. Summer is coming up, which is going to be weird since Laryna6 technically lives in a different state (woe!), but we'll figure out how to make things work when we get there._

_And a single gloat and it's the Zero Virus for you...you know who you are... _

…_Uh, right. Enjoy the chapter, and remember to review! I can't wait to hear opinions on _this_ chapter—I think the only time I've been more excited was when we posted Chapter One!_

— — — — — —

**Chapter Eleven**

"_I see the parade from above…all the twists and turns it might—or might not—take."_

- - -

The next morning Valerie methodically ate soggy spoonfuls of cereal, Danny patiently sitting across from her at the kitchen table, reading his book again, oblivious to the world. Valerie shook her head and sighed.

_Maybe I should hide that thing,_ she thought, slowly taking another bite. _Or else leave out some books about NASA and outer space…_

Danny looked up at the kitchen clock and blinked. "Um, Valerie, it's nine forty-five."

Valerie blinked. "It is? Oh." She cleared her throat, scooped up the last of her cereal, and got up from the table. "Well, I guess we should go."

Danny quickly placed a bookmark on his page, grabbed his backpack, and grinned mischievously.

"What?" Valerie asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Race ya!" he yelled as he took off, phasing through the ceiling in an instant.

"No fair!" Valerie yelled uselessly, and raced out of the house, activating her armor and charging after the ghost.

Of course, because Danny had taken the lead he got to the mall first, smirking as Valerie landed a few minutes later.

"That was not fair, Danny Fenton!" she grumbled, packing up her hoverboard and armor. Danny just grinned and pulled on his civilian clothes, looking _entirely_ too pleased. Then the two headed to the front of the mall.

"Hey, ghost boy! Danny!" yelled Paulina, waving wildly as she nearly leaped from her father's black car. Danny sighed for a moment, conflicted. A small part of Valerie felt victorious—after all, Paulina deserved a lot more than just some uncertainly after how callous she had been about Danny's human half!

Paulina ran up and eyed Danny critically, giving a shudder.

"You _have_ to get out of those clothes," Paulina said to Danny. "They're _so_, like, _eighties!_"

Danny frowned at the Christmas decorations surrounding them. He looked distinctively disgruntled. "Shouldn't I have something to change into first?" he said finally, looking at all the already eager shoppers entering the mall.

Paulina grinned and attached herself to Danny's arm. "Then let's go!" She dragged the boy inside, Valerie quickly following.

"Where are we going first?" she asked, feeling a little cross. Paulina still hadn't let go of Danny, and she didn't look like she was about to start.

"Maybe Bloomingsales, or Saks Sixth Avenue, or…" as Paulina prattled on Valerie smirked as Danny looked more and more annoyed at the Christmas shoppers.

"Don't like shopping, Danny?" she whispered, snickering.

"Don't like _Christmas_," he answered peevishly. "Are we almost there?" he asked, raising his voice so Paulina could hear him.

"Yes!" she answered cheerfully. "Welcome to Bloomingsales!"

Danny blinked and stared at the masses of shoppers running about the giant department store. "You know, I've never been in here before…"

Paulina giggled and dragged him to the men's department, now in her element. Somehow Valerie became the pack mule of the group, arms heavy with load after load of clothing while Paulina pranced about like a pony in a circus. Danny followed behind her grumpily, looking like he was fighting the urge to blow every Christmas decoration into little bits. Valerie wondered why, but decided to ask him about it later, when Paulina wasn't around.

Finally the girl shoved Danny and his clothing into a dressing room and waited as Danny pulled the first outfit over his costume.

"I am _not_ wearing this," Danny growled from inside the room.

"Let me see first!" Paulina pouted. "Please?"

"I'm dressed like _Chip Skylark_! He's a _boy band_ guy!" Valerie could hear the shudder in his voice, and valiantly tried to stifle a snicker.

"Aw, come on out, ghost!" the ghost hunter called. "What, are you afraid?"

"I am NOT afraid!" he yelled. "I just don't want to look like a guy who sings about his teeth!"

This time Valerie didn't bother to stifle her laughter. "And how did you know about that song in the first place?" she teased. She heard Danny mutter something under his breath and he strode out of the room, still grumbling.

"Ooooh, that looks _cute_!" squeaked Paulina. Valerie eyed him critically.

"But that'd probably only work for Christmas season, since he has green and white coloring," she said despite herself. Though she had stopped bothering after she began ghost hunting, she still had a trained eye for fashion from when she was popular.

"It might work for now, though…" Paulina began.

"That's it, I'm taking this stuff off," Danny growled, and walked back into the dressing room. A moment later he added, "and I refuse to wear a pink hat!"

Paulina blinked. "Pink hat? I never gave him a pink hat…"

Valerie coughed. That had actually been a joke she had thrown into the pile out of boredom.

"Well, move on to the next outfit," Paulina commanded. Danny muttered something again but changed into the next set of clothes and stepped outside.

Both girls stared at him, struck dumb for a moment.

Paulina was good—_very_ good. She had gone for a preppy theme with a long-sleeved black sweater over a white long-sleeved collared dress shirt, leaving the collar to stick out from the neck of the sweater and the tipped bottoms of the white shirt pulled out over his black jeans. Even with the white gloves and white boots, Danny looked…_hot._

"What do you think?" the boy asked, turning for them. Paulina smirked as he moved, probably enjoying the view.

After a moment Valerie managed to focus.

"We'll…we'll get that," she said. Danny blinked at the reaction of the two girls, then looked at himself in the mirror, probably wondering why the new clothes had such better reactions over the ones he'd worn when he was alive.

_Snap out of it, Valerie!_ she growled at herself. _You are_ not _attracted to a ghost! That's_ necrophilia!

She shook her head slightly and realized Paulina was nudging her.

"He looks _dreamy_, doesn't he?" she whispered longingly. Valerie found herself nodding an affirmative. However, after a moment Paulina frowned.

"That would be _perfect_ if you could take the gloves off," she said. "And we should probably get you black shoes, too."

"Hmm." Danny paused for a moment thoughtfully. "Well, I could try something…"

He concentrated for a moment, staring at his hands, and Valerie blinked as two small white rings shot forward with a whooshing sound from his wrists, and as they passed his gloves became skin.

"When'd you learn how to do that?" she asked, surprised. Danny grinned.

"I found out a while ago I could," he answered, but didn't volunteer any more information. His boots wavered between black and white for a moment, but he shook his head and they reverted back to normal.

"I don't think I can do more than my hands right now," he explained. "It takes some power to do this, and it's the first time I've ever tried…"

Paulina grinned. "Maybe we should go shoe shopping, then!"

Danny blinked. "Uh, maybe…it'd be a bit impractical, though, wouldn't it? I mean, don't you just need one pair of shoes? And these look okay."

Paulina laughed, shaking her head. "Just like a boy to think that! C'mon, let's go to the House of Shoes store!"

"Uh, I—"

But Danny didn't get a chance to protest as Paulina grabbed his hand and flounced out, taking the tags off at the register so Danny didn't have to change out of his clothing. Valerie quickly put her father's old clothing in a shopping bag and hurried out, getting annoyed at how Paulina seemed to _purposely_ leave her behind whenever she could, and how she was reduced to pack mule status when she managed to catch up. Danny was _her_ friend, darn it!

…Now where had _that_ thought come from?

Valerie shook her head a little again and chased after Paulina as the girl led Danny to the other end of the mall.

"Would you take me flying with you? Please?" Paulina was asking as Valerie caught up. Danny coughed behind his free hand and seemed suddenly very interested in his feet.

"Uh, I'm not sure," he said, blushing a little as Paulina molded her body to his. Valerie heard a female murmuring around them, and realized that now every single teenage girl around them was staring at the two, studying the couple—no, they were _not_ a couple!—with approval.

"If she gets any more obvious I'll hurl," she muttered to herself angrily, and shoved herself between them. Danny had a strange, mixed expression of relief and annoyance at being separated, but Valerie didn't care.

"Valerie, I was talking to the ghost boy!" Paulina growled, obviously irritated. Valerie gave a plastic smile and didn't answer.

"Hooo boy," she heard Danny mutter. "Anyway, Paulina," he said, raising his voice, "it might be too dangerous to take you flying. I mean, if a ghost attacks…"

"I'm not afraid," Paulina answered, smiling. "I know you can protect me!" Danny flushed.

"Well, yeah, but—"

They reached the center of the mall, which was filled with boxed and wrapped presents. A cameraman and reporter stood in front of the pile, getting ready to film.

"Are we good? All right, live in three, two, one…" She cleared her throat and her face went blank. "Thank you, Stephanie," she said, answering an unheard voice. "Today the annual community Christmas Toy Drive has collected a record number of gifts for the impoverished children of Amity Park this year, as you can see behind me—"

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!" yelled a voice behind her, and the reporter gasped and jumped back as the Box Ghost shot out of the pile, making each present float with a blue glow. "And once I empty these cubic containers of their _useless_ contents, their marvelous—"

"Oh please," Danny growled, and phased out of his clothing, letting it fall into a pile. He shot forward, slammed into the Box Ghost and smashed him into the ground. The presents fell with loud thumps as the two tussled, Danny easily gaining the upper hand. Paulina cheered and ran forward, heedless of any danger (though Valerie knew there _was_ none, which was a bit of a disappointment) and after grabbing Danny's abandoned clothes the ghost hunter followed.

"Aaah! Argh! Beware!" yelped the Box Ghost as Danny pummeled him happily, enjoying his revenge over his previous beating. Valerie wished there was a place she could safely put on her armor without being seen—she felt like venting a little frustration too!

"Danny!" she called after a few minutes, and tossed the boy the thermos. Danny let up on the Box Ghost just long enough to grab the device before sucking the ghost inside.

"Fear meeee!" the Box Ghost cried as he was sucked in, but Danny ignored him.

"Sorry about that," he said, flying into the air and landing neatly on his feet next to Paulina. "He's a real pest."

"And I thought this was going to be a boring assignment!" they heard the reporter say enthusiastically, and both ghost hunters turned, realizing the entire fight must have been caught on a live broadcast.

Paulina grabbed Danny in a close hug, knowing perfectly well all of Action News' viewers would see her do so. "Thank you for saving me," she whispered seductively into his ear. He blushed and pulled himself out of her grip.

"Uh, I didn't really do much," he said, and to Valerie's annoyance he grew redder. "It's just the Box Ghost. He's pretty harmless."

He turned around and jumped as a microphone was shoved into his face.

"Hello," said the reporter in front of him. "I'm Shelly Wakamoto with Action News. You're Danny Phantom, right?"

"Uh…yeah…" Danny looked flustered, and Valerie had a moment of pity for him, but it was overruled by excitement. If this reporter would interview him and he could clear his name…!

"You just saved Christmas for the poor people of Amity Park!" Shelly began. Danny frowned.

"I saved Christmas? Crud…um, I mean, glad to help!"

"Do you have anything you want to say?" asked Shelly, pressing her advantage. It was obvious she wanted to get an interview, but for some reason Danny wasn't giving it! Valerie knew she had to take charge.

"I do," she said, stepping forward. "Danny Phantom and Fenton Works are working together to fight ghosts and protect Amity Park. I'm Fenton Works' representative." She stared directly into the camera. "Danny's a _good_ ghost!"

"Yeah!" Paulina added, attaching herself to Danny. "He's saved me a bunch of times!"

"Uh, Paulina, I think we're on live TV…" he mumbled, trying to push her off. Valerie twitched and pulled Danny to her side.

"Fenton Works and Danny Phantom work together?" asked the reporter. "Then what about the mayor's kidnapping?"

"I was framed!" Danny said indignantly, forgetting both girls in his anger. "A ghost named Walker overshadowed the mayor and made him kidnap _me_! Those were his stupid goons attacking the city, too. I was trying to push the ghosts out of everyone and get Walker back into the Ghost Zone, that's all!"

"That's the first time he saved me!" Paulina interjected proudly, leaning her head on his shoulder. "He kept me from getting possessed!"

_Would you stop touching him!_ Valerie felt like screaming, but she didn't dare. This interview was too important! Besides, if the teens of Casper High saw how much the popular girl liked Danny Phantom, they'd like him too, and that was good, right? …Right?

"But what about the robberies afterward?" the reporter pressed, probably trying to ask as many questions as possible before the ghost flew away.

"That was because of Freakshow," Danny answered hotly, moving a bit so Paulina couldn't lean on him anymore. "He had this rod that controlled ghosts, and he managed to take control of _me_ for a while too." Danny shuddered. "I had no idea what I was doing…I managed to destroy it, though, and stopped the train so the cops could recover all the stuff he made us steal."

"Us?"

"Oh, the rest of his troupe were actually ghosts…" Danny shrugged. "They were too eager to leave to prove I was innocent."

"I knew you wouldn't do something like that!" Paulina interrupted again. Valerie felt like smacking her, but controlled herself. Paulina was _helping_ by protesting Danny's innocence, right?

"And what about the mysterious ghost hunter in red?" the reporter pressed, professionally ignoring the popular girl.

"I'm not going to say much about her" —Danny grinned mischievously— "but I _will_ say that she was a crazy stalker of mine. She had stuff about me all over her room, and she was _always_ hunting me."

What! Crazy stalker? Why, when she got him alone—!

"We work together now, though," he said firmly.

_Great_, Valerie thought grumpily. _Now I have to wait until we get_ home _to pummel him for that stalker remark._

"Could you explain more about the ghost invasions, and how they get into our world?" the reporter continued.

"Hmm," Danny said. "That's a pretty long question…"

- - -

Vlad Plasmius flew through the Ghost Zone, heading to a lair he had only just found. Finding Clockwork had taken time, connections, and bribes, but he had done it, and now he was going to see how this ghost would defend himself against Vlad's questions.

_There it is_, Vlad thought as he came upon a strange, cog-covered castle. He carefully sneaked inside, floating quietly above three ghosts, two of which looked like giant green eyeballs in capes and the last a baby holding a staff.

"Clockwork, you have broken even more of the Protocol! Not only have you manipulated the boy in the primary timeline, but you allowed this _other, secondary _timeline to exist!"

Vlad blinked as the baby transformed into a smirking, middle-aged man. "Perhaps," the man said. "But you know as well as I do no timeline can be erased, and key moments can create different timelines. And in both the boy's evil self was eliminated."

"In the primary _you_ violated the Protocol for Temporal Displacement and saved the boy's family, and in the secondary the boy eliminated himself! You cheated _again_!"

"Either way, the child's evil self is no longer a threat, so you have nothing to complain about." The man glared, suddenly growing old and withered. "Your objectives have been reached. Now, if you could _observe_ the door."

The two eyeball ghosts glared but disappeared, leaving Vlad and presumably Clockwork alone.

Vlad's mind was awhirl. Different timelines? Primary and _secondary_ timelines? He was from a _secondary timeline_?

_And Maddie and Daniel are alive in the first,_ Vlad realized.

"Hello, Plasmius," said Clockwork, adjusting a cog on his staff.

Vlad refused to show his surprise, and instead swooped down gracefully, eyes dark and narrowed.

"You have the power to change time," he said simply. His eyes narrowed further, and his hands began to glow. "You _will_ change our timeline to be like that other, so Maddie and Daniel will be alive."

"You heard what I said to the Observants, Plasmius," answered Clockwork, not bothering to look up. "No timeline can be destroyed, and yours has already been created."

Vlad twitched, trying to control his anger. "Then you will send me back in time and let me rescue Maddie," he ordered.

Clockwork shifted into baby form, and he gave an infuriating, angelic baby smile.

"No."

"No? If you don't—" Vlad raised a hand threateningly, but Clockwork merely shifted to his middle-age form and smirked.

"Then the boy _hasn't _told you of how easily I defeated him when he attempted to fight."

"Daniel is nowhere _near_ to my level."

And with that Vlad shot forward, shooting powerful ghost rays to hit Clockwork dead on. Clockwork pressed the button on the top of his staff, which _ping_ed loudly.

—and Vlad shot forward, shooting powerful ghost rays—

_Ping!_

—and Vlad shot forward, shooting powerful ghost rays—

"**Time out."**

And suddenly everything stopped for a moment, as Clockwork moved to the right smugly.

"**Time in."**

—and Vlad shot forward and smashed into a giant bell where Clockwork used to be, dizzy and confused. Clockwork pressed down the button again.

—and Vlad shot forward and smashed into a giant bell—

_Ping!_

—and Vlad shot forward and smashed into a giant bell—

_Ping!_

—and Vlad shot forward and smashed into a giant bell—

_Ping!_

"I could do this all day," Clockwork said, pressing the button again, smirking. He sounded like he had said it before. "But I do have a schedule to keep."

And with that Vlad smashed into the bell one last time and reeled, trying to get his bearings.

_Think, Vlad!_ he ordered himself furiously. _Think with your_ brain, _not your emotions! That's what_ Daniel _does!_

"Why won't you let me rescue Maddie?" Vlad finally growled, gingerly rubbing his pounding head.

"Because there are three timelines, Plasmius," said Clockwork matter-of-factly. "One where I never interfered" —a wavering image of an annihilated landscape appeared in Clockwork's viewing portal— "one where I interfered once" —now the image of Daniel talking to a reporter, Valerie at his side, appeared— "and one where I interfered twice." The final image rested on Daniel eating a dinner with his family, oblivious to his observers.

Clockwork stared directly into Vlad's eyes. "You need to be in your timeline, and the woman needs to be in the other."

"Then send me to that other!" Vlad roared, splitting himself into four doppelgangers, all charging for Clockwork. The mere _thought_ of Maddie alive somewhere was enough to destroy any reasoning he had.

"I don't think your alternate would much appreciate that," Clockwork said, amused. He formed a shield around himself as he shifted into an old man, seeming to prefer merely defending himself rather than smashing Vlad into large, blunt objects.

"I don't care about _him_!" all four Vlads roared, and dove towards the ghost—

"**Time out."**

Clockwork moved himself out of the way and smirked as he pressed the button again.

"**Time in."**

—and the four Vlads smashed into each other, three disappearing into the fourth as he tried to gather his bearings and strength once again.

"You are needed here, in _your_ timeline," Clockwork said pitilessly as he shifted back to childhood. "The boy needs you."

"The boy needs his _mother!_" His eyes locked on the Maddie in the portal, serving food to her family, the Daniel at the table eating happily. "_You-will-give-me-back-Maddie!"_

Clockwork sighed. "She belongs in her timeline, and you belong in yours. Now, I have a schedule to keep, so I will bid you adieu."

Vlad charged, hands firing yet more ghost rays from sheer fury—

"**Time out."**

—there was a brief feel of movement—

"**Time in."**

—and he was back in his own lab, as though he had never left.

Vlad fired several ghost rays in frustration, annihilating a few tables in the process. Now he knew there was another Maddie out there, and by God he would…

…he would leave Daniel to rot.

He had at first seen Daniel as an extension of Maddie. The son they should have had, powerful, even if he had inherited Jack's lack of intelligence. But that was the problem—_Daniel was really Maddie's son._

Vlad stared at the smoking table for a long time. Then he turned to the large, framed portrait of Maddie he had had made years ago.

"You wouldn't want me to leave him alone, would you?" he asked heavily. The artist had been very good—the Maddie in the painting looked almost alive. "Nor would your alternate…she would hate me for it."

He stared at the portrait's image for a while longer, and ran his hands over his face.

He left the lab.


	13. Chapter Twelve

_Marisa's note: fee fee fi fi fo fo fum...  
_

— — — — — —

**Chapter Twelve**

"_Girls, do you dream of being a princess?" _

- - -

Time passed.

Christmas and New Year's came and went, and after Winter Break Valerie's school load picked up so much that she lost track of the days, only thinking in terms of which day a test or essay was due and how much time she had to allot for schoolwork before she could go ghost hunting.

Today Valerie threw her backpack on her bed and flopped into her desk chair, glaring at her pack as though it had personally insulted her and her family's ancestry.

"It's not _fair!_" she grumbled. "Why can't I go do a _little_ bit of ghost hunting before I do my homework? It wouldn't hurt anyone!"

Muttering to herself, she pulled out her calculus book and set to work. About an hour after she started she heard a knock on her window and turned. Danny waved playfully at her and phased through the glass.

"Whatcha doing?" he asked, settling himself down on her bed.

"Homework," she answered grumpily. "I thought you'd be out ghost hunting right now."

"Well, I thought you'd be done with your homework by now, too. I never took this long." He paused and thought for a moment. "But I always skipped my math homework anyway."

"Well, that explains why you were bad at math! And you wanting to be an astronaut, too."

"Hmph."

For a little while longer there was silence, until Valerie noticed Danny had grabbed her backpack and was rifling through it curiously, looking at the binders and flyers inside.

"Hey! Get your hands outta there!"

He grinned and held up a paper. "What, afraid I'd see this?"

Valerie glared at him and looked at the flyer he was holding.

"Oh, that's from the assembly they had today," she said automatically. Danny read it thoughtfully.

"The Miss Teenage Happy Princess Beauty Pageant? Man, Sam would've hated that." He grinned at her. "You entering?"

She snorted. "You have to attend a week of _Princess_ _School_ in order to enter. Waste prime ghost-hunting time balancing books on my head? Please."

Danny looked at her for a moment, then smirked.

"I _dare_ you to enter."

"What? No way!"

"Hey, if you can force _me_ to be social, I can force _you_ too!"

"I haven't forced you to do anything, Danny Fenton!"

"Oh, then going to school and the arcade the first time were completely voluntary, and that crazy fan club too," he reminded dryly. Valerie blushed.

"I don't see why I should enter," she grumbled.

"Hey, you always say I shouldn't focus on ghost hunting all the time, remember? You shouldn't either!"

"Yeah, but you're a _totally_ different case."

"Am not! Hey, if you can tell a dead guy to have a life, I can tell you to have one too. You're alive and everything. You have a distinct advantage."

"Shut up, Fenton!"

"I bet your _dad_ would want you to enter!" he challenged. Valerie snatched for the flyer, but Danny only became intangible, the paper with him. "He's worried about you focusing on ghost hunting too much too. Come on, Valerie, you should totally to it. It's not fair if you make me have all the fun. Besides, I'll be there to guard you in case anything happens."

"Hmph."

Danny gave her the puppy-dog eyes, and Valerie wondered if he had an ulterior motive for getting her in, such as an excuse to hang out and watch the girls as they spruced themselves up. She had to admit he was getting more Danny-ish with every social activity she had dragged him to, and by "guarding" her he'd be doing something all normal teenage boys liked to do: ogle girls. Still, it was a _normal_ teenage boy thing, and it _would_ be kinda cool if she won…

"Oh, okay," she finally growled, snatching the flyer and filling out the application. "But you owe me a day out doing something for every day of Princess Training."

Danny grinned. "Deal."

- - -

Vlad Masters had landed in Amity Park the day the final judging would begin, pleased. As he had predicted, sponsoring Dora Mattingly's charity beauty pageant had been a brilliant business move. Not only was he now getting credit (and tax deductions) for helping raise money for sick orphans in Africa, but he had a valid reason to be in Amity Park. According to his pawn, Daniel had made some real mental progress, now voluntarily socializing with others of his own age and acting (as she had put it), "more Danny-ish". Now he could check up on Daniel himself without the boy suspecting an evil plot. Well, too _much_ of an evil plot.

Now he waited patiently while the judges' panel was set up. Because he was the sponsor it was decided that he would be the final judge, though they had a representative from the school judging as well—Kwan something-or-other. It didn't really matter; only Vlad's opinion counted, and he already knew who he would pick.

He was sure his pawn would love winning the pageant. He supposed Daniel was waiting for the pageant to begin somewhere himself—after all, it had been the boy who had teased his pawn into entering.

Finally the show began, with each girl doing some sort of talent display. The annoying girl from Daniel's Christmas news interview (it had been broadcasted as Amity Park's primetime news report, and from there spread all over the Internet so Vlad had easily seen it) did an equally annoying cheer, and the other girls did not do much better. Vlad waited, bored, until Valerie came on stage and displayed various martial art moves. That amused him—the girl probably would have loved showing her ghost-hunting skills instead, but knew that was impossible.

Finally the talent portion was over, and the girls walked out slowly, each wearing their ball-gown dresses proudly. Valerie stepped out in a long, slinky blue dress, pearls around her neck, a diamond ring on one finger and colorful bracelets on her wrists. Vlad noticed she had no ghost hunting equipment with her—she must have been ordered to leave it all behind for final judging. Vlad was amused at that.

"Sir knights, which fair damsel doth choose as Princess?" the new teacher asked lamely. Vlad resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Valerie Gray," he replied after a pretended moment of thought. The school representative nodded.

"Yeah, I pick Valerie too," he said. Valerie grinned as the crowd cheered—Vlad heard a particularly loud whoop that sounded like Daniel—and Dora pulled the girl onto a platform that raised itself high in the air, fireworks going off as the woman placed a golden crown on Valerie's head. There was a brilliant flash of light, and then it seemed as though they disappeared.

"_Valerie! _No!" Vlad heard someone cry from above, and frowned. That had been Daniel, and he had sounded worried. Why?

Someone poked his back. Vlad whirled, searching for the culprit, then realized it must have been Daniel. He felt a second poke, and was certain of it. Not wishing to appear as though he was suddenly talking to himself, he excused himself from the judges' table and headed for the backstage area, understanding that the boy hadn't wanted to reveal himself around so many people.

"_What did you do with Valerie,_ Plasmius?" Daniel accused the second they were alone, becoming visible as he did so. Vlad raised an eyebrow and shifted into his ghost form.

"What makes you think I've done anything?" he asked. Daniel glared at him.

"That woman put that crown on Valerie's head and they both disappeared! You were working with her—you _must_ be up to something!"

Vlad's eyes narrowed. "Valerie has disappeared?"

"Yes! I just saw them!"

"I can assure you I have nothing to do with Valerie's disappearance. I suppose it's too much for you to think that not every plot I have revolves around you two."

"Where. Is. Valerie?"

"I have no idea!"

But now that he thought about it… why had he been approached for something like this? He was not, after all, known for sponsoring charity beauty pageants. Had he been so eager to have a reason to visit Amity Park that he hadn't thought about whether Mattingly had ulterior motives?

"I had assumed this was a charity function, but it seems there's more than meets the eye," he growled. _The woman will pay for that,_ he thought angrily. _No one_ out-manipulated Vlad Plasmius!

"Obviously," Daniel answered dryly. Vlad felt his irritation at the boy rising.

"First we search the area," Vlad said, deciding to show he would take control of the situation.

However, Daniel only shook his head. "Already did that. They're not here."

"How can you be so positive?"

"Because I _saw_ them disappear!" Daniel yelled, momentarily forgetting where he was. "And if I don't do something _right now_ Valerie might get hurt!"

Vlad sighed. "Calm down, Daniel. I will look around myself." Vlad became invisible and flew up, scanned the area for his pawn, and hovered for a moment as he realized that Daniel had been right. The two were nowhere to be found.

When he landed he saw that the boy had sat down, frowning in thought.

"I didn't really get close to Dora when Valerie was doing Princess Training," Daniel said when he saw Vlad. "But there _was_ a point where I thought my ghost sense went off, but I didn't see a ghost anywhere…I thought it was one of those stupid medieval ghosts attacking again, but it must have actually been _her_!"

Vlad paused for a moment, then shrugged. He might as well go with Daniel's hunch—occasionally the boy had been right before, and Vlad had no real idea where to go anyway.

"We can use the portal at the Maddie Memorial," he said simply. Daniel blinked and gave him an odd look.

"You mean the Fenton Portal in Fenton Works?" Vlad looked pained, but the boy nodded in agreement. "All right."

- - -

While Vlad activated the ghost portal Daniel revved up a car-sized ship, impatient to leave.

"We'll use the Specter Speeder to find Valerie," he said as Vlad phased into the car, not noticing that Vlad had slipped Valerie's backpack below his seat. "It can detect real world items."

The boy pushed a lever up and the machine shot forward, straight into the Ghost Zone. Vlad waited patiently while Daniel paused for a moment, unsure of which direction to go. Finally he simply settled on flying straight, studying the real item detector closely. When Vlad made a motion to move, Daniel whipped around, glaring at him angrily.

"Don't try _anything_, Plasmius," he hissed. "I don't trust you."

Vlad felt slightly offended. If it hadn't been for him Valerie would still be shooting at Daniel, not working with him!

"I have done nothing but help you, Daniel," he replied sharply. Daniel snorted.

"Right. Like telling Spectra _everything_ was helpful!"

Vlad blinked. "Spectra?" he asked, baffled. "That incompetent therapist? Why would I tell her anything?"

"I'm sure you had _some_ sort of reason." Daniel's hands clenched the steering wheel tighter, accidentally turning them to the right slightly.

"Why would I bother with her when I have ghosts like Skulker in my employ? Honestly, Daniel, sometimes your ego amazes me. Not every plot revolves around you."

Daniel glared at him. "Then how did she know about what happened, huh? I hadn't told _anyone!_"

Vlad rolled his eyes. "Daniel, that woman's only talent is to figure out a person's weak point and exploit it. This might be a bit of a surprise, but you're not exactly hard to read."

Daniel opened his mouth to growl a response, but the ship got there first.

"Real world item detected," it intoned, and Valerie's silhouette flashed onto the green dial. Vlad smiled. Obviously Maddie had designed the detection system.

And obviously _Jack_ had designed the ship. As the machine flew through a giant, ornate doorway the nose dived, and no matter how hard Daniel pulled at the wheel the machine did not respond. The ship bounced into a green moat like a skipping stone and eventually crashed into the ground with a painful screech.

Vlad had become intangible in time to avoid any hurt, but Daniel had not been so quick-thinking. While the boy was still unconscious Vlad split himself in half and sent the other to find his pawn, making sure his double carried her backpack with him. After all, she would want her armor soon enough.

Just as the copy Vlad disappeared Daniel woke up, rubbing his head gingerly. "What happened?" he asked, confused.

"The ship crashed," answered Vlad. Daniel blinked.

"It crashed? It's never done that before…weird." He shook his head and phased through the machine, already determined to find his friend. Soon the two flew past two opposing stone dragons and down a pathway.

"Oh no, not these guys _again_!" Daniel groaned as two medieval ghosts appeared. "I don't have _time_ for this!"

With that he jumped forward and began to fight, Vlad hanging in the back and shooting a few token shots so Daniel would think he was trying to help. However, in reality he wanted to see how well Daniel fought—if the boy had improved as much as Valerie had suggested, he would be able to handle these two easily.

The boy had not improved. In a moment he was caught by the axe-wielding ghost, arms and ankles bound together tightly. Vlad sighed and fired a few shots for real, shooting the second ghost into one of the dragonheads, which fell down onto the first ghost and smashed both into supposed oblivion. Daniel broke free of his bonds just in time to not get pulled down with them and flew a little closer to Vlad.

"We have to go find Valerie," he said, rubbing his wrists. Vlad nodded, deciding it would be wiser to follow the boy instead of antagonize him further. Vlad pawed through the remnants of the dragon head and pulled out some of the hooded medieval ghost's clothes.

"We can sneak in by using disguises," he said. Daniel nodded in agreement, and soon the two were covered in hoods and bits of armor, blending in, more or less.

- - -

The second Vlad was rather amused. He had flown to the castle and, still invisible, watched as Valerie fought her way out of the highest room of the tallest tower and down into the main hall, annihilating any ghost unlucky enough to be in the way. Even without weapons she was dangerous, proving she was indeed a ninth degree black belt with skillful punches and painfully accurate kicks. She had ripped the dress short in order to have more freedom of movement, and Vlad had the feeling that the short skirt as much as her fighting skills shocked the master of the house.

_Aragon_, Vlad thought, lip curling. An idiot dragon ghost who never left his castle, unlike his sister…Dorathea.

Vlad smacked himself on the head. Of _course!_ Dora…Dorathea…why hadn't he remembered? Well, the two dragon ghosts would pay for this later. _No one_ got the better of Vlad Plasmius!

- - -

Meanwhile Daniel and the original Vlad walked boldly into the castle, the guards not even giving them a second glance. Vlad shook his head slightly and resisted the urge to tsk. Such lax security would _never_ be permitted on his grounds! His contempt for Aragon grew, but was _almost_ held in check by the deviousness of this plan. He had to admit, as evil plans went this was pretty good. However, _why_ Aragon wanted a human in his domain still eluded the hybrid, and that annoyed him.

"Valerie!" Daniel cried as they entered the main hall. Aragon was leaning over Valerie, reaching for her head with a dangerous look in his eyes.

Daniel did not hesitate. He lunged forward and grabbed Valerie's hand, glaring at Aragon all the while.

"Leave her alone!" he yelled, and pulled Valerie away.

"What are you _doing?_" she snapped. Daniel dragged her to her feet and pulled her forward, dragging her down the hallway.

"Saving you!" he answered. Valerie glared at him.

"Saving me? I was doing fine on my own! Now let go, the crown—"

Vlad watched as the crown glowed just before Daniel walked out of the doorway. A green force field of some sort appeared just before Valerie could go through and she hit it hard, glaring at Daniel all the meanwhile.

"Valerie!" the boy cried, confused.

"Insolent _peasants_!" Aragon roared, grabbing Valerie from the doorway. "No one steals my bride!"

"But I thought you didn't want her," Dorathea interrupted timidly.

"You do not think. _EVER!"_ Aragon let out a howl as his pendant glowed and his skin covered itself with scales. His tongue shot out, green and snakelike. _"You do as you're TOLD!"_

His head shot up as his neck elongated and became serpentine. Dorathea cowered at his feet as his boots burst into clawed talons, his back grew wings, and a spiky tail formed at the base of his spine...

Vlad's eyes narrowed. Aragon had become a huge black dragon, his pendant now a collar. The dragon roared and turned—

"Wedding's cancelled, _scaly!_" Daniel snarled as he shot two powerful ghost rays, smashing the giant lizard into the far wall. It turned and roared again, slamming into Daniel and pushing both through the ceiling, leaving a huge gaping hole behind.

Vlad paused for a moment, then left his invisible double to watch over Valerie and followed after the boy.

- - -

Valerie _fumed_.

How _dare_ Danny interrupt like that! Like _she_ would ever need rescuing! He should have remembered about all the times she had rescued _him_…and now her chances at getting the stupid crown off were gone. Oh, if Aragon didn't kill Danny first _she would!_

Valerie turned and looked at Dora with a faint tinge of disgust as she heard Aragon roar again. "Are you just going to let him go out and do that?" she growled, annoyed. "He's _your _stupid brother. Why are you letting him push you around?"

Dora slumped, then held up her hands. "What choice do I have? A princess isn't supposed to _think_. We just have to smile, look pretty and live _happily ever after._" She clasped her hands together as she stared up at the ceiling, her voice dripping sarcasm.

Valerie rolled her eyes. "You've got to be kidding me. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard! Look, I took on your brother with my bare hands and I kicked his butt! And you're the same as your brother, aren't you? Danny told me about you. You're supposed to be a dragon ghost too."

Dora paused. "True, we do share the same power," she said almost to herself, lifting the pendant around her neck and looking into it. "Which means…I should be able to do—this!"

She turned to Valerie and grabbed the crown. Sweating and straining she pulled at it, clenching her eyes in the effort—

—and it snapped off. Valerie grinned as Dora's pendant crackled, her eyes closed. Then she opened them with a snarl, her canines now large and fang-like, her pupils slit, and her irises a dangerous, burning red.

- - -

Daniel cried out as Aragon's blue fire hit his shield, bursting it and slamming him into a tree. Vlad watched, amused, as the boy pulled himself to his feet, glaring at Vlad angrily.

"Pull your own weight, Plasmius!" he snarled, shooting ghost rays at the dragon. Vlad smirked.

"It's called _delegation_, Daniel," Vlad scoffed. "Besides, you need the practice."

Daniel opened his mouth to argue, but Aragon roared and the boy returned his attention to the dragon, narrowly avoiding its tail. Vlad shot a few token shots, but continued to watch. After all, Daniel really _did_ need the practice, and Aragon wasn't worth his effort.

- - -

Inside the castle, the Vlad watching over Valerie waited until Dorathea jumped through the hole in the ceiling her brother had left.

"Hello, Valerie," he said, becoming visible before the girl could leave.

Valerie jumped into a guard position, her hands held defensively in front of her and her green eyes narrowed. "Hey, you're the ghost that was helping Danny fight the Fright Knight! Who are you?" Vlad noted with approval that, although she still glared at him with hatred, she had held back from attacking immediately.

"Do you remember, Miss Gray," he said as black rings formed around his waist, "how I told you that Daniel wasn't the only half-ghost ghost hunter?"

"Mr. Masters?" gasped Valerie as he finished transforming and stood before her, fully human. Her hands faltered and fell to her sides and she stared at him, shocked.

Vlad sighed theatrically, once again falling into his role. "Yes. As I said, Daniel wasn't the only one harmed by Jack's reckless experiments. It's only by luck that Maddie and Jasmine weren't harmed…but we have more important things to do than talk right now." He transformed back into Plasmius and held out the backpack.

"My gear!" Valerie cried, grabbing the bag gratefully. "Thank you, Mr. Masters!"

"Don't mention it, my dear," said Vlad, pleased she had accepted his existence so quickly. The girl was indeed improving. "Now I think Daniel might need some help, hmm?" Valerie nodded and Vlad disappeared.

_Perfect_, he thought, satisfied, as he flew back to the other Vlad to become one again. Now if Daniel chose to reveal Vlad's ghost half Valerie would not be surprised—far from it. Instead she would believe that the boy's negative opinion of Vlad was simply because of his skewed point of view, and Vlad's ghost half was just another part of her benefactor's abilities. His pawn would continue to think of him with good will and now remained under his control, just as he wanted it. Perfect indeed.

- - -

Outside, Daniel was showing that, though he was not up to his former strength while alive, he was better than when Vlad first found him. When Aragon flew to attack Daniel became intangible to allow the dragon to pass through him, then grabbed the monster's tail. Aragorn tried to blast him with his blue fire, but Daniel made him hit his own tail instead, causing him to roar in pain and fall down into the moat.

"Now, are you going to let my friend go, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?" Daniel gloated.

But Daniel's power and recently improved tactics were no match for centuries of battle experience. Aragorn's claw came up out of the water and grabbed him, then slammed him into the ground.

"How about the _slow_ and _painful_ way?" the dragon growled.

Vlad made a motion to interfere, but Aragorn was blasted with blue fire from behind before Vlad could move, and the dragon collapsed into the ground.

Daniel opened weary eyes to see a giant blue dragon flying through the sky, furious and ready to fight.

"Dora, you imbecile, what do you think you're doing?" Aragorn snarled.

"What I should have done _ages_ ago!" she roared, her flame hitting Aragorn again. "_Sixteen hundred years_ of doing your bidding!" she snarled, smashing into him and knocking him away with a blast of fire. "Sixteen hundred years of suffering your insults!_ Sixteen hundred years_ of—"

Aragorn's clawed paw shot out of the flames and clamped her mouth closed. His head jutted out, framed by the blue fire, eyes hard and deadly. However, before he could attempt anything a pink energy beam smashed him once again into the ground.

"You!" Aragorn pointed at Valerie, glaring daggers as he pulled himself up. "This is your fault! Filling her head with your modern ideas!"

"There's a reason we have them!" the girl growled, firing more shots.

"Valerie!" Daniel cried, jumping into the air joyfully.

Valerie snorted. "I'm fine, no thanks to you."

"Hey, I didn't know!" Daniel protested, then jumped into the air and yanked Aragon's collar off of his neck. The dragon dwindled down to human form, the prince now hanging awkwardly on Dorathea's snout. The dragon simply flicked him off with a smirk and smashed him into the ground, and after putting out all the fires returned to where Danny, Valerie, and the now whole Vlad waited.

"Thank you all!" the dragon-ghost cried, landing with a thump. "Poindexter kept saying he was a bully and I should stand up to him, but I just never had the courage. Mummy is going to be so angry, but I don't care!" She pointed her snout to the clouds, smirking. "I think it's time we take this realm out of the Dark Ages!" She blew a stream of air into the atmosphere, shoving all the clouds away as light poured down from a yellow sky.

"Valerie!" Daniel cried, flying to the girl and hugging her tightly, ignoring the blue dragon's words and actions. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, thanks to Mr. Masters. He gave me back my armor."

"_Vlad_?" Daniel gasped, shocked. Then he turned back to Vlad, who floated nearby, hiding a smirk. "You told her?"

"I think she's trustworthy, don't you agree?" Vlad became human and dusted off his suit. "Now I think it's time you return to claim your prize, Miss Gray. The show must go on for the sake of those poor orphans, after all."

Daniel glared murder, but kept his mouth closed. He realized he was still holding Valerie and quickly let go, blushing.

"Daniel, go take Miss Gray back to the real world and I'll see if I can get your father's contraption working again," Vlad ordered. For once Daniel merely nodded and turned to his friend.

"Come on, Valerie. Let's get out of here."

"Heck yeah! Thank you again, Mr. Masters!" Valerie kicked her hoverboard into gear and Daniel grabbed her hand, leading both back to the real world.

"Now, Princess Dorathea," Vlad growled as he transformed into Plasmius, "do you care to explain why you dared to trick me?"

The dragon gulped, shifting to human form and standing before Vlad, eyes averted. "My brother ordered me to!" she answered nervously. "He wanted a perfect human bride and thought a half-ghost would be the best judge of which human would have the traits a ghost would want."

Vlad snorted, and four newly-created Plasmiuses blasted Aragon from all sides, smashing the already weakened ghost further into the ground.

"Aragon, if you _ever_ meddle in my affairs again I will make you wish you had never died. Understand?" He picked the prince up by his tunic and shook him, his eyes narrowed and glowing a very dangerous red.

"Yes, Lord Plasmius!" Aragon nodded quickly, gulping.

"Good." Vlad tossed him back on the ground. He felt merciful today. "And I'll take that," he said, pointing to Aragorn's pendant. Dorathea handed it to him wordlessly, and Vlad smiled. At least this venture had had some use: he had gathered another talisman for his collection, and Valerie was fully convinced that once again _Mr. Masters_ was on her side.

Vlad flew to the vehicle and experimentally turned it on, surprised that the stupid contraption now worked perfectly. Shaking his head, he flew back to the Maddie Memorial Lab, leaving the machine where they had found it when he returned. No reason for the valuable Mr. Gray to know that his daughter had been in danger thanks to his esteemed employer, after all.

When Vlad returned to the pageant everyone was still celebrating. He slipped into the crowd as though he had never left and awarded Valerie her prizes—the infamous crown, now somehow transformed into cheap plastic and costume jewelry, a bouquet of roses, and a certificate for a dinner for two at the Material Grill. After the hubbub died down Valerie pulled Vlad behind the stage where Daniel waited, lips a thin line.

"Thank you," he growled through gritted teeth.

Vlad raised an eyebrow. "Why, you're welcome, Daniel."

"I'm only thanking you because Valerie made me promise," he snapped when Valerie moved away, presumably to give the two privacy.

"She has the manners of a true princess, and the courage of a knight. You really could learn from her." He paused, then stared Daniel straight in the eye. "You're only fourteen, and we haven't always been on the best of terms. I hope you and I will get along better in future, Daniel." He held out his hand to the boy, who glared at it as though it was a poisonous snake, his own hand firmly clenched at his side. Valerie saw him hesitate and walked back, poking him between the shoulder blades harshly.

Daniel took Vlad's hand, squeezing painfully hard, a smile pasted on his face. Vlad ignored it until the boy quickly let go.

Even though Daniel bristled with negativity, they had held a truce. It was progress of a sort, helping Daniel to eventually trust him. After all, Daniel's suspicions had proven to be paranoia, and Valerie was firmly in Vlad's camp, which could influence the boy greatly.

"I have to go back to Wisconsin," Vlad said, "but I'm sure I'll be seeing you two again soon." Very soon, if Vlad could create a reason.

He turned to Valerie and smiled. "I'm sure whoever you choose to take to the dinner with you will be a very lucky young man."

"Actually, I was thinking about taking my dad, Mr. Masters. I'm so busy with ghost hunting I don't have time for a boyfriend."

"That's commendable dedication." He smiled again, then frowned. "Still, ghost hunting isn't all there is to life. I insist that you at least take a friend."

"Friends…well, there's Kwan. And Dash." She frowned in thought. "I guess I could take one of them…"

Daniel twitched. "You are _not_ going with Dash. _I'll_ go with you."

Valerie blushed slightly. "Um, okay," she stumbled, the blush growing stronger, though Daniel didn't notice.

"Ah, excellent," Vlad interrupted, hiding a smirk. "I'm so glad you two are getting along so well." He smiled at them both, then turned to walk out of the alley. "I'll see you again soon, Miss Gray. Daniel. I'd suggest you both go home—you've had a tiring day."

— — — — — —

_Marisa's note: don't forget to leave a review, and see you in two weeks!_


	14. Chapter Thirteen

_Marisa's note: quick reminder—Valerie's father's name is Damon, for those who don't remember. And as for the Kindred Spirits thing (since a lot of you reviewers brought it up), well…WWVD?_

— — — — — —

**Chapter Thirteen**

"_Friend! Will meet…again." _

Valerie pounded on Danny's bedroom door, annoyed. "Hurry up!" she yelled. "We're late!"

"Hang on a sec!" Danny called.

"Oh, for the love of—Danny, move it! _Girls_ are the ones who are supposed to take forever to get ready!" She tapped her foot impatiently, then pounded on the door again. "It's not like Paulina bought you _that_ many outfits! Just pick one and let's go!"

"Ta-daaaa!" Danny called, opening the door and standing in the doorway. Valerie stared at him for a moment, speechless. Danny had dressed himself in a forest-green, untucked collared shirt with faded black jeans, but he looked at her with dark blue-almost black-eyes and blond hair.

"How…?" she began, a little shocked. "Is that the same trick you did at Christmas?"

Danny nodded, grinning. "I've been practicing since then. See? I even made my shoes black _and_ my hands normal." He pointed his now glove-free hand down at his feet, proud of his ability to change. Valerie blinked and eyed him critically.

"Your hair's glowing a little," she said. Danny frowned and the glow faded.

"It takes a little bit of concentration to do this," he admitted.

"So you can change your looks now?" Valerie asked, feeling a little creeped out. She knew that some ghosts, like Spectra and Ember, could disguise themselves as humans, but for some reason it bothered her that Danny could do it now too.

"Yep!" he answered cheerfully, oblivious to her discomfort. "Let's go! I want to get some serious practice with this power."

_Of course,_ Valerie thought with a sigh. _He just wants to practice, that's all, and get stronger to defeat ghosts. That's his ghost-obsession. He's not going out to just have _fun.

Valerie shook her head with another sigh and looked at Danny. "But you still look like Danny Phantom, except your eyes and hair are different."

Danny grinned. "Hey, if no one figured out Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were the same person before, I don't think they'll start noticing now. And _you_ were the one who was in such a hurry—let's go!"

With that he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs. Valerie shot him a look.

"Hmph. Well, now that you can look human you should go to school with me." Danny looked alarmed and dropped her hand, and she laughed. "Don't worry, I was kidding. Although…"

"Uh, let's get going!" said Danny quickly, and pulled them down to the front door where Damon waited, car keys in hand. The man blinked when he saw Danny's new look, then smiled.

"Looks nice, Danny," he said. Danny grinned and followed him to the car, climbing into the back seat with Valerie. She smiled a little as he looked at his hand and realized it was white again, quickly turning it back to normal skin with a frown.

The ride to the Material Grill was quiet, both Danny and Valerie merely looking out the window as the town sped by them. Valerie wished she was flying right now, but she supposed riding in a car was more normal, which meant it was better for Danny since normal things were good. Still, she wished she could be out on her hoverboard right now instead of in a car…

"I'll drop you off here," Damon said, and Valerie realized with a start that they were already at the restaurant. She blinked and grabbed her purse as her father handed her a cellphone.

"Don't forget to call me when you want to come home, all right? I'll come by and pick you up."

"All right, Daddy," she answered, and gave him a peck on the cheek before leaving the car and walking away, Danny beside her.

"Bye, Mr. Gray!" Danny called, waving slightly as the car left the parking lot. As they entered the restaurant Valerie flashed her certificate at a waiter and the two were instantly escorted to a private booth. Valerie blinked and stared at Danny as two water glasses were placed on the table with the menus. "Can you even eat?" she asked as he picked up his water.

He grinned. "My parents said that ghosts can eat human food if they want to, but they don't actually get energy from it the way humans do." He took a sip and smiled. "I've been experimenting a little lately, and I think they were right."

Valerie narrowed her eyes. "Did you 'experiment' with my chocolate?"

Danny grinned. "Guilty."

She reached over and punched him lightly. "You should know better then to mess with a girl's chocolate! You owe me three candy bars."

She turned to her right and wrinkled her nose. "Oh, man. Look over there!"

Danny looked where she was pointing and winced himself. A platform had been placed in the middle of the restaurant and several oddly dressed people were dancing on it, the disco ball above them flashing proudly. "That looks so dorky," he said.

Valerie nodded. "I think it's some sort of seventies-themed dance or something…look at how they're dressed!" She snorted. "Especially those two over there—the girl with the green hair and the blonde guy. I mean, seriously…I think they're the dorkiest of the lot!"

"Green hair?" Danny repeated, looking for the dancers in question. He blanched.

Valerie saw his reaction and cocked her head. "Do you know them, Danny?"

Danny gave a nervous laugh. "Uh, nope. Say, think they serve bacon cheeseburgers here? I like those." He looked at the menu, then grinned. "Tucker would have loved this. Look at that meat platter thing they have!"

"Uh-_huh."_ However, Valerie let it go and looked at the menu for something to eat too. Hey, even though Danny wasn't actually hungry, she was!

The song changed and some of the dancers stepped off the floor, the green-haired girl and blonde guy among them. Valerie blinked as the green-haired girl pulled on the blonde guy's sleeve and pointed in their direction.

"Are you _sure_ you don't know them?" she said as the two walked towards their booth. "They seem to know you."

"What?"

"_Danny!"_ squealed the girl as they stepped up to the table, and actually gave him a hug. Valerie felt a surge of something that certainly wasn't jealousy rise within her, and a look at the guy's face told her that he felt the same.

"Danny, who is this?" Valerie asked sharply, and the girl smiled, letting go of the boy and shaking Valerie's hand.

"I'm Kitty! Nice to meet you. And this is my boyfriend, Johnny." She grinned back at Danny and leaned her head on Johnny's chest. "Danny, I never did get to say thank you for getting me and Johnny back together!"

Danny smiled weakly. "Um, you're welcome."

Valerie looked between the three, feeling confused and hating it. "Danny, _what are you guys talking about?_"

"Uh…"

"Hey, are you Danny's girlfriend?" interrupted Kitty, grinning.

Valerie blanched. "No! He's my friend!"

"Yeah! We're just friends!" Danny chimed in, blushing.

Kitty smirked. "Just friends? Then what are you doing out on a date on _Valentine's Day?_"

Valerie blinked. It was Valentine's Day? She must have lost track.

Kitty merely grinned and leaned down towards Valerie. "You're a lucky girl," the green-haired girl said, winking. "Danny's a _great_ boyfriend."

How would _Kitty_ know if Danny was a good boyfriend or not? Valerie narrowed her eyes and looked at Danny, but the boy only managed to turn redder.

"Danny…" she began, but before the conversation could grow any more awkward a huge black wolf in a torn, green sweats smashed through the opposing wall, howling as he did so.

"_Wulf!"_ Danny cried involuntarily, and Johnny's eyes widened.

"Let's blow this pop stand, doll!" the blonde yelled, and before Kitty could argue he wrapped his arm around her waist, jumped above the table and disappeared through the wall. Valerie's mouth dropped.

"You mean this whole time they were _ghosts?_" she yelped, staring at the wall they had phased through. "Why didn't you _tell me?"_

"I've _told_ you ghosts can look like humans, and we have more important things to worry about!" Danny yelled, and two bands of white light flew out from his waist with a whooshing sound. As they traveled around his body his clothing transformed into his black and white costume, his eyes returned to glowing green and his hair went back to its usual white. Valerie reached into her purse and pulled out her makeup kit, whipping out a red lipstick container, switching its setting from lip balm to laser beam. In a moment she also withdrew a compact, pressing a hidden button beneath the powder pad inside to transform it into a glowing, round pink shield.

"The Gray Utility Makeup," she said fondly as she slipped the compact's arm ring onto her wrist and activated the lipstick, making its tip glow. "Fits into any purse _and_ fries ghost butt."

"No, wait!" said Danny, pulling it away. "Wulf's a _good_ ghost. There's _got_ to be a reason—"

"_Frieeeennd!"_ Wulf howled hoarsely, charging toward Danny. Valerie grabbed her lipstick back and aimed—

—and then saw who Wulf was running _from_.

"Those are the weird ghosts who invaded Amity Park last year!" she gasped, pointing at half a dozen helmeted ghosts as they piled through Wulf's hole.

"Walker's goons!" Danny growled, hands now glowing an angry green. "No wonder Wulf's running…oh no."

A strange, purple, lizard-like pirate ghost had followed the ghost-cops through Wulf's hole, searching the area for the wolf. His eyes widened when he saw Danny.

"We can track Wulf later," he growled. "Get the ghost kid!" All the other cop-ghosts turned, now ignoring the wolf in favor of capturing Danny.

"Just try it!" Valerie growled, and fired at the closest ghost-cop, blowing him into a second ghost. "Leave Danny alone!"

"Valerie, get them away from Wulf!" Danny yelled. "I can take care of—_gah!"_ Danny was slammed into the wall and caught in a painful armlock by the purple pirate man, who only stared impassively at the boy as he attempted to struggle.

"You're coming with me, kid," growled the pirate. "Walker's been _looking_ for you."

"Danny!" Valerie cried, trying to blast her way to his side, but the cop-ghosts flooded in front of her and she couldn't break through.

"_Leave friend alone!"_ roared a heavily accented voice, and the wolf ghost slammed down from the ceiling into the pirate, knocking Danny loose in the process. Danny quickly shot several ghost rays directly into the pirate's stomach, who grunted from the impact as Wulf pinned the other ghost's arms behind his back.

"Valerie!" Danny shouted, waving at her with one hand while keeping the other blasting continual shots into the pirate's chest. "Thermos!"

"Got it!" she yelled back and chucked it high into the air. Danny jumped and grabbed it, activating it before the pirate could even think to struggle. Once the other cop-ghosts saw the thermos they attempted to flee, but Danny was too quick for them, and soon the restaurant was completely empty but for Valerie, Danny, and the wolf.

"Okay, Danny," Valerie growled as the boy landed in front of her, "what the heck just happened? What is Wulf, and what did that guy mean by Walker? Why is Walker looking for you?"

"It's a long story, and I'd rather tell it under a ghost shield," Danny answered tensely, "where Walker's goons can't get to us."

"Good point." She pointed at the wolf. "What should we do with him?"

"Well, we can't put him in the thermos with the other ghosts," Danny answered. He turned to the ghost and paused. "Uh…Wulf, go invisible."

The wolf only looked confused, and Danny tried again. "Wulf hide?" He briefly became invisible himself, trying to show the ghost what he wanted. A flash of insight lit the wolf's eyes, and he became invisible instantly.

"I'd better change to human," Danny said, and the white rings formed around his waist again to reveal his human clothes and colors. He laughed a little. "I didn't expect to get a secret identity again! Backwards this time though, isn't it?"

Valerie merely stared at him. Danny cocked his head and gave her an odd look. "Uh, Valerie…?"

She continued to stare and swallowed a large lump in her throat, wiping at her eyes.

"You…went wrong," she said, and pointed at a broken mirror shard. Danny looked into it.

"Oh," he said very softly, staring at his reflection.

His face reflected back at him, suddenly subdued blue eyes meeting his under a mop of messy black hair. After a moment white rings formed around his waist again, and this time he got it right, his hair turning blond and eyes to the bruised blue.

"I'm…sorry," he said after a moment, but by then Valerie had composed herself.

"It's okay," she said with a false smile on her lips. "Must be habit, huh?"

Danny laughed awkwardly and gave her a sad half-grin. "Better call your dad," he answered, avoiding the question. "We'd better tell him about this."

"Definitely," she answered, and grabbed her cellphone from her purse.

After a moment her father picked up the phone.

"Hey, Dad…" she began as the two picked their way over the destroyed tables and damaged platform.

"Ready for me to pick you up, sweetie?" Damon asked. Valerie met Danny's eyes for a moment.

"There was a ghost attack here, Dad," she said. "And we're bringing a ghost home."

"In the thermos?"

"No, outside. He's Danny's friend. The ghosts that attacked are in the thermos."

"Tell him the one who attacked was Walker," Danny interrupted. "Well, people working for Walker. And when Walker finds out I'm still around… if he's after Wulf he'll be after me."

Valerie shivered. She didn't want anything to happen to Danny. Well, anything _more_ to happen to Danny.

"We need to get home quick, Daddy," she said into the phone. "We're going to fly back to Fenton Works. Get the ghost shield ready, though. We'll probably get company."

"Of course," Damon replied, sounding worried. "I'll be on it. Just knock on the door when you get here."

"Okay." She hung up the phone and let Danny pick her up once they got outside.

"Wulf, follow!" Danny called, then shifted to his real form and took off. As they sped above the town to Fenton Works Valerie felt her stomach sink. She remembered how easily she had lost to Pariah Dark and his army—and here was another powerful ghost with an army of his own. This was the one that had framed Danny and made the entire city hate him, the one that attempted to create as much destruction while in the human world as he could, and one that made Danny nervous. One who was really, _really_ dangerous.

She didn't know if Danny was strong enough to deal with someone like this.

But at least he'd have her to help him.

— — — — — —

_Laryna6's note: I wrote a fic about Clockwork for the 100th reviewer of this fic. If you like him, check it out! After reviewing this, of course._

_Marisa's note: yes, check it out and review _both_ stories! Not that we adore reviews or anything…'course not…_


	15. Chapter Fourteen

_Marisa's disclaimer: Funny Joke-Around Vlad is not in this chapter. Please remember that Vlad _is _an obsessive sociopath, so occasionally the dark side comes out. _

**Chapter Fourteen**

"_Next time we take the interdimensional fugitive to _my_ place."_

- - -

"All right, Danny, fill me in on Walker," Valerie ordered as they entered the house. Wulf trailed after her and Damon stared at the ghost curiously. "You told me what he does and his power level, but you never told me he was after you!"

"Well, almost every ghost I know is after me, so it's old news," he answered dryly. "That or they just generally hate me. Anyway, Walker says I broke some of his rules, so he wants to put me in prison for a thousand years. Well, probably a lot longer than that by now, but you get the idea."

Valerie jerked her head towards Wulf. "And him?"

"His name's Wulf, and he helped me escape from Walker before when Walker invaded Amity Park. He can claw holes through the boundary that separates the Ghost Zone from the real world, but he only speaks Esper…Espa…well, this weird language that Tucker knew but I don't. I think he's trying to learn English, though."

"Well, that's something." Valerie stared at the wolf as he sniffed the air. She looked back at Danny. "What rule did you break, by the way?"

"Oh, I tried to get a present that had fallen into the Ghost Zone back," he answered carelessly. "But by now I probably have a hundred charges for running away from the police. Or something." He shrugged. "Walker makes up his own rules all the time."

"What's his prison like?" she asked. Danny frowned.

"Big," he answered after a moment. "Really big. The one time I got stuck in there I met every malevolent ghost I've ever fought…I had to do some fast talking to keep them from thrashing me."

Valerie snorted. _She_ knew if she'd ever been caught in that ghost prison she'd blow up the place before Walker or her enemies had a chance to blink—she wouldn't have wasted time _talking! _

"You two, follow me. We need to get this collar off," Damon said, nodding his head toward the lab. "Come on, Wulf. I have some tools downstairs that we can use to get rid of that thing." Danny nodded at Wulf and the four descended into the basement.

After a moment of rummaging Damon pulled out a oddly-shaped tool out of a drawer and started to slice off Wulf's collar. Danny sat down on a chair with a sigh and looked at the wolf.

"I'm glad you're free from Walker now," he said, "but you'd better stay here or his goons will come after you again. If it's _safe _here."

"The house ghost shield's up, so it should be," answered Damon, not looking up. As he finished and pulled the collar off it pinged. Danny cocked his head, curious. "What's that?"

Damon had paled, staring at the collar in his hand as though it was a snake. "I think…this collar has a tracking device."

Then the alarms blared into life. Red lights flashed overhead as a jarring screech blasted through the room. Danny raced to the main outdoors monitor and stared, dumbstruck, as Damon switched off the alarms. Valerie ran to his side, then gasped as she saw what the boy was looking at.

"Dad, there's a whole ghost army outside!"

"Walker," Danny growled. His fists clenched and he jumped into the air and flew through the ceiling, obviously on his way outside. Damon quickly pressed a series of buttons, and in a minute a blue ghost shield formed a dome over the entire console.

A moment later Danny flew back down angrily. "Let down the house's ghost shield!" he ordered. "I need to get out there and fight!"

"You will not leave this house, young man," Damon answered calmly. "You're still too weak to take on an army."

"But there are people out there!" Danny protested. "Don't you remember how much damage Walker did last time?"

"Yes, and that's why you can't leave." The man quickly turned to the staircase. "Valerie! Get back here!" he yelled. Valerie stopped where she stood and turned around guiltily, hiding her backpack behind her.

"Neither of you are going anywhere," he told them firmly as he grabbed Valerie's bag.

"But Dad!" Valerie protested. Damon shook his head.

"Don't 'but Dad' me, Valerie," he ordered. His eyes softened. "Sweetie, the last time you fought an army of this size you were _severely_ injured. We'll let the professionals handle this—I'll contact the Guys in White."

"Are you joking?" Danny cried. "The Guys in White? Mr. Gray, I can take them on blindfolded and one hand tied behind my back! They stink!"

"This is their job," Damon answered sternly. "You two will stay in here, where it's _safe_."

"But Mr. Gray—"

"No buts! Now, if you get some rest I might let you help the Guys in White mop up tomorrow."

"_Mop up?" _Valerie repeated, aghast. "Dad—"

"Valerie!"

"Fine, fine." But her dad didn't know she had a ton of weapons up in her room, and she could always climb out of her window—after all, she wasn't forced to stay inside the ghost shield like Danny was…

Wulf only whipped his head back and forth as the conversation flowed, clearly confused. Danny stared at him for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face, then grabbed the wolf's paw.

"I'll take Wulf upstairs," he said, and pulled him through the ceiling. Valerie narrowed her eyes. Danny was up to something…

"It's okay, Valerie," her father said, reading her thoughts. "It's not like they can…" He paused and stared at the console. His jaw dropped in shock. "_How did they get through the ghost shield?"_

Valerie grabbed her backpack back and sprinted up the stairs, activating her armor as she went.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" her father snapped.

She activated her hoverboard and tucked it under her arm. "I won't let him fight alone!" And with that she raced out the front door and was gone.

Damon stared after her for a moment, then went back to the lab and activated the communication system. As he did so he sighed. When had he lost control of his daughter?

- - -

Outside was chaos.

Valerie simply gaped for a moment, shocked at how many green cop-ghosts zoomed through the air destroying buildings and chasing citizens all over the city. She heard a yell and a zap to her left and saw Danny blast a cop-ghost into a building with a ghost ray before blasting a second ghost into the wall next to the first. Then he whipped his hands together and formed a strange, glowing rope, lassoing the two ghosts together before he sucked them into the thermos. Without missing a beat he launched more ghost rays at another ghost, counting under his breath as it smashed into the pavement and was quickly captured.

"Nine, and…ten!" he grinned triumphantly as he trapped two more ghosts. Valerie shook her head and shot one down before it could attack Danny from behind his back, squishing it into little blobs of ectoplasm on the sidewalk.

Danny whirled around to find out what made the noise, and stared. "Wait—Valerie?"

Valerie glared at him before blasting another ghost into oblivion. "Get back inside the ghost shield before I drag you there, Danny!" she yelled, forgetting he couldn't because he was a ghost himself. "You're not strong enough to take down an army!"

"Neither are you!" he yelled back, slamming a ghost into a wall and sucking it into the thermos. "Eleven!"

"At least Walker doesn't have a vendetta against me!" she argued. She switched her weapon to bazooka mode and smashed two ghosts into goo, sucking the squishy remnants into a thermos of her own. "Four!"

"You shouldn't give him a reason to _get_ one!" he snapped, turning his back to her as he knocked more ghosts out of the sky. "Thirteen!"

"Five! I can handle some stupid _warden_—AAAAHHH!"

Danny whirled just in time to see Valerie fall off of her hoverboard, a cop-ghost gloating above her as two more dived in to drive her into the pavement—"_Valerie_!" Danny screamed—

—and a growling green shape tore the two ghosts in half in half midair and caught Valerie before she crashed into the ground, landing gently on its hind legs.

Valerie stared at Wulf's huge muzzle, her eyes wide as he gave her what he must have thought was a friendly smile. A friendly, pointy, _sharp_ smile. She gulped.

He set her down on the ground and his tail wagged slightly. "Friend of friend safe."

Valerie stared, shocked. A ghost had saved her life, and he wasn't even Danny! But there wasn't time to think about the implications right now.

"Uh, thanks," she muttered, and called her hoverboard to her, jumping on in a second as the wolf attacked more ghosts with a snarl.

"Thanks, Wulf!" Danny cried from above just before he formed a spherical shield around himself to protect him from three more cop-ghosts as they attacked. Valerie turned towards him, her finger already on the trigger to shoot Danny's attackers out of the sky—

"Found you, punk!" growled a new voice, and a glowing white ghost smashed Danny out of the air, slamming him down so hard that when the boy landed he made an imprint on the concrete, knocking him out instantly. Valerie winced.

"Walker!" she snapped, recognizing the ghost from Danny's ghost files.

Walker ignored her completely and floated down to Danny, who didn't respond. "This time, punk, I'm going to bring you in for good," he growled, picking the boy up by his wrist. "Now that you can't turn human you won't be able to escape my prison, _where you belong_."

"_No!_ Leave Danny alone!" Valerie shrieked, and fired at the warden, but Walker only smirked and yanked Danny in front of him so her friend took the shot. Valerie winced and bit her lip as she realized she couldn't attack Walker so long as he had his hostage. Wulf growled and charged, but Walker landed a fierce uppercut to the wolf's jaw and sent him skidding down the street, where he smashed into a stoplight a good thirty feet away. Three cop-ghosts grabbed him and carried the howling wolf away before he could continue to interfere. Several others yanked Valerie off of her hoverboard and began to drag her away as well. She struggled, but there were so many she couldn't break free. "Danny!" she screamed. "Danny, _WAKE UP!_"

Danny groaned and opened his eyes. He realized that someone was holding him up by his wrist, and when he looked up he saw with horror that the someone was Walker.

"Let go of me!" Danny said, and blasted Walker in the chest with a ghost ray. Walker grunted at the impact, but his grip only tightened, and he pulled out a pair of glowing handcuffs.

"You're going away for a long, long time, punk," he smirked, smashing the cuffs onto Danny's wrists. Danny's eyes widened and he struggled fiercely, but couldn't free himself from the cuffs or Walker's iron grip. Painfully realizing what he had to do, he took a deep breath, and felt the last remnants of his power gather in his vocal cords—

"_AARRRRGH!"_ Walker screamed suddenly, and both the warden and his captive were smashed into the pavement from a pink blast, the warden fortunately hitting the ground first and cushioning Danny by accident. Danny looked up and saw Plasmius hovering above both of them.

"Get your hands off of my son!" the hybrid roared, and ripped Danny away from the weakened warden. Danny's mouth dropped open and he stared at Plasmius, aghast.

"_Son?"_ he squeaked. "I am _so_ not—"

"Back off, lawbreaker," Walker snarled, shoving himself up from the concrete. Plasmius merely narrowed his eyes and stepped forward in front of Danny protectively. Danny twitched and tried to shoot the hybrid in the back just on principle, but the ghost handcuffs restricted his powers and he couldn't charge his hands.

"I gave you an order," Plasmius said, his voice low and dangerous. Walker's eyes narrowed as well.

"I don't _take_ orders, I _give_ them," the warden spat. "And I order you to back down."

"And I think you forget who I am," Plasmius growled, his hands glowing pink. Then he slammed both hands together and shot the thickest ghost ray Danny had ever seen at Walker, smashing the ghost into an opposing wall. Then the hybrid split himself into four different ghosts. One grabbed Walker by his suit and punched him so hard that he flew into the air. The other three slammed him into the pavement with a triple hit of the same super-strong ghost ray, and the fourth smashed him further into the street with a glowing ball of ghost energy. Then the forth landed in front of Danny again to play bodyguard as the other three continued to pummel Walker. Danny saw all four of them had a strange, deadly look on their faces. Danny stared. The Plasmiuses looked almost maniac from anger.

After what was either an eternity or a few moments later the four Plasmiuses combined to tower over Walker.

"You still exist because you're necessary to keep order in the Ghost Zone," the hybrid said through gritted teeth. "But attack Daniel again and I will be forced to…_permanently_…incapacitate you. Do you understand?"

The warden said nothing.

"Good," Plasmius said, and allowed two cop-ghosts to carry Walker away. He then turned to Daniel and forced open the handcuffs.

"What are you doing here?" the boy asked, eyes narrowed.

"I had business," Plasmius replied as black rings formed around his waist and he transformed back into Vlad Masters. What Vlad _didn't_ say was that Damon had contacted him as soon as Valerie and Daniel had left the Maddie Memorial Lab and Vlad had used the ghost portal to travel to Amity Park almost instantly, telling Damon that the reason he had a portal was that he himself experimented with ghost technology, and left the Memorial to convince Valerie and Daniel they were no match against an army. In reality, of course, he had only watched the battle; after all, there was no need to actually intervene, seeing as his protégés needed more practice. But when that arrogant fool Walker had laid a hand on Daniel, and Daniel hadn't been able to fight back…well, that was letting the practice go too far.

"Mr. Masters!" a voice cried, and both ghost and hybrid turned to see Valerie run up to them, her armor torn and dirtied but her voice jubilant. "You're here! You got here just in time!"

"Yeah, _perfect_ timing," Danny growled as he forced himself upright.

Vlad merely smiled. "Yes, wonderful luck, wasn't it? I was almost too late. I'm afraid I had to make sure the Maddie Memorial Lab was secure before I left. It wouldn't do for those ghosts to have stolen ghost-hunting technology, would it?"

"You mean steal the tech at _Fenton Works_?" Danny asked pointedly. Vlad glared at him and Danny smirked.

Valerie grabbed Danny and hugged him tightly. "I'm glad you're safe!"

"Ow!" Danny winced as Valerie's hug began to crush his bruised ribs. "Uh, me too."

Valerie's eyes widened, and she released him as soon as she realized she was hurting him. The last thing Danny needed was _more_ damage.

The boy glared at Vlad. "And what did you mean by calling me '_son'?_"

"Oh, that?" Vlad said carelessly. "Well, you are. I did adopt you, after all." Vlad had to hide a smirk as he saw Danny's scowl. "And that means I'm going to look after you," he continued. "Maddie would have wanted it that way."

"Only my _dad_ can call me son," Danny snapped, but Valerie poked him in a sore spot.

"He helped us!" she whispered angrily. "Thank him!"

Danny glared at her, then sighed. "Thank you," he muttered, never sounding less grateful in his life.

Vlad smiled magnanimously, ignoring Danny's malice. "You're quite welcome, little badger." He started as Wulf appeared and tapped Danny on the shoulder, looking both pleased and apologetic.

"Walker gone," the wolf said carefully. "Friend safe. Now go."

"You're leaving?" Danny asked with a frown. "But you just got here…"

"Now safe. Go home," the wolf replied.

"Oh," Danny said. "Well, wherever home is, I guess that's safer for you…good luck, Wulf."

Wulf nodded and buried Danny in a furry hug before he ripped a hole to the Ghost Zone, disappearing inside just before the tear closed itself again.

Vlad stared, shook his head, and turned to Valerie. "Are you well enough to travel home, Miss Gray?"

Valerie nodded, then winced. "Oh, my dad's going to kill me. He told us to not go out and fight."

Vlad frowned, and for once the frown was real. "Forbidding one of the world's best ghost hunters from hunting ghosts?" His frown deepened. "Well, we can't have that. I'll talk to him for you again, hmm?"

"Thank you, Mr. Masters!" Valerie replied happily. Danny grunted and followed behind her as the two flew back to Fenton Works.

— — — — — — — — — — — —

_Hey, everyone, Marisa Mockery here—_

_I'll just do a quick explanation for that hiatus: real life tends to get in the way of fic. (If it makes you feel better, I've had to stop working on my scanlations as well.) See, I'm a junior in college now, majoring in Ethnic Studies and Creative Writing, and all of my ES teachers are famous activists and all of my CW teachers are bestselling authors. Thus, my teachers are very, very picky about what I turn in, which means I need to spend lots and lots of time on it. And the funny thing is, once you start writing for class all the time, you don't feel like writing for fun anymore. I've also started working on a comic for the school newspaper that actually provides me with income, so I need to set aside time for that as well. To be blunt: there are more important things in my life than fanstuffs right now. Laryna6 has the ability to make time to write fanfiction. Because of the high standards I set for myself and my writing, and my love of rough drafts and editing, I do not. I would prefer to pass school with a good GPA than write fanfics and get Cs in all of my classes. _

_So, in short, real life has gotten in the way of a pastime. This does NOT mean we will stop working on the fic. This DOES mean, however, that is it not going to be put on my priority list, and it will be worked on in my spare time. I will _aim_ for one chapter a month, but no promises whatsoever, especially since I have responsibilities to Rockman Tanjou as well, and I doubt Tanjou's fans or Elaine would appreciate it if I stopped working on our manga series. However, if you want to encourage me or something, please send some NICE reminders about it. Anyone writing stupid things like "wen r u gunna rite anothr chaptr" will be fed to the Grammar Nazi and ignored. I'm not saying this because I only want nice emails. I'm saying this because Netspeak pisses me the hell off, and whoever invented it needs to DIE. Emails like that do NOT make me want to please any fans. _

_So, thanks for reading this far, and if I haven't scared you off yet please leave a review!_


	16. Chapter Fifteen

_**Marisa's note:**__ there is a __**very important**__ author's note at the end of this chapter; I would appreciate it if you guys read it before deciding to not leave a review (as most of you don't), because leaving a review in this case will help decide whether this fic continues or not. I suggest reading it. _

— — — — — —

**Chapter Fifteen **

"_And with that I bid you a fond farewell."_

— — — — — —

Valerie yawned and stretched luxuriously, blinking blearily as she stared at her alarm clock.

She jumped up in shock, and leaned in for a closer look. Yes, it was definitely eleven in the morning, and Saturday to boot, yet a certain annoying ghost-boy had not woken her up at six AM with a screeching "Hi, Valerie! Ready to go ghost-hunting?" and breakfast. (Breakfast had to be served because she refused to leave the house without it, on pain of pain, as Danny had already done death.) Why had Danny let her sleep in after almost a year of early mornings?

Grumbling, Valerie descended the stairs to see her father in the kitchen.

"Good morning, Valerie. Finished ghost-hunting already?"

"Haven't started yet, actually. Where's Danny?" She quickly poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down. "He'd better not be fighting ghosts without me."

"Actually, today's been quiet. I haven't seen any movement on the radar, _including_ Danny."

Valerie thoughtfully ate in silence. After she finished, she rinsed out the bowl and looked at the kitchen stove's clock, which had a display of the date as well as the time.

"Oh," was all she could say. In a moment she had her armor on and was out the door on her hoverboard, looking for her friend.

The date was the day that Danny's family and friends had died.

— — — — — —

"Any luck, Valerie?" asked Damon over the com. Valerie sighed.

"No," she said. "I've tried the Nasty Burger, the school, Tucker's old house, Sam's old house, his usual hangouts…"

"The cemetery?"

"Of course I've tried…oh. Um. On my way. "

— — — — — —

She found him sitting on his parents' double grave, leaning against the headstone, his head on his hands, his expression hideously blank. He hadn't looked so emotionless since his death one year ago. She suddenly felt frightened.

"Danny…?"

Nothing.

"Danny?" Still spooked, she waved a hand in front of his face. He didn't even blink.

She bit her lip and sat down next to him, quietly recalling her armor as she did so. For a while there was silence, with the unblinking ghost and the unnerved girl, as she opened and closed her mouth several times, trying to think of something to say.

"So, um, Danny," she began finally. "Are you going to patrol with me later?"

Silence.

"You could have asked us to get you some flowers or something. On…on M-Mom's anniversary, we always give her her favorites. And we…we talk about her, to remember the…the good times. You don't have to do this."

The ghost still didn't react.

"Hey, ghost boy, I'm trying to help!" Valerie snapped, standing up and glaring at him. "Stop pitying yourself! You're not the only one who lost someone today, y'know!" Immediately after she said it, she wanted to take it back. But even this did not make Danny respond. After staring at him for a moment more, she turned and left, brushing tears from her eyes.

The two ghosts who had been there so long they no longer set off Danny's ghost sense became visible then, smirking as they inhaled the emotions from Valerie and Danny and visibly grew younger and younger. Laughing, referring to the teens and particularly the boy as a "stalled spa treatments", the two took off to steal themselves some frappacinos before their next dose.

— — — — — —

Danny watched, over and over, as his family died and he did nothing.

Over and over, he heard the screams. Over and over, blood fell on his face. Over and over, he didn't pass out this time, he watched their faces as they contorted from the pain and shrieked and their blood showered over him in a coppery flood.

Over and over, he saw it. And he heard a familiar woman's voice, talking to him through the fog, telling him it was all his fault, but he didn't need the voice to tell him that, he knew it.

He didn't know how or when he had come here. He had simply been drawn to the graves, just like he had simply known today was the day they died, and today was the day he had let them down. And he would see them die over and over again and feel it and smell it and taste it until he begged to scream and be released. But he couldn't move. He could only see it again. And _it was his fault._

_Danny?_

Mom died.

_Danny?_

Dad died.

_So, um, Danny, are you going to patrol with me later?_

Jazz died.

_You could have asked us to get you some flowers or something._

Lancer died.

_On…on M-Mom's anniversary, we always give her her favorites.._

Tucker died.

_And we…we talk about her, to remember the…the good times._

Sam died.

_You don't have to do this._

Their blood _covered_ him.

_Hey, ghost boy, I'm trying to help!_

He couldn't get it off! Oh, God, it wouldn't come off!

_Stop pitying yourself!_

Why wouldn't it come off? And—oh, oh God no—was that—was that their scattered body parts over there? No, no, please…he didn't want to see…

_You're not the only one who lost someone today, y'know!_

And then they died again.

— — — — — —

Vlad arrived at the cemetery later than he'd initially planned solely because he'd been unable to decide which flowers to leave on his precious Maddie's grave. At first he'd wanted to leave glowing green flowers there, to represent her love for ghosts, but then he discovered the only ones he could find were extremely radioactive, so that was no good. Then he tried to find yellow and dark green flowers, but remembered she just never loved the Packers the way he did. And the exquisite bouquet he'd ordered for her turned out to not be ready in time (he'd made a mental note to either buy out that particular shop or "visit" it later as Plasmius in revenge), so that was a dud. He'd had to go to a sub-par shop in Amity Park and ended up with a single white rose and a single red rose to lay at her grave.

All of these thoughts, of course, were only surface thoughts to distract him from the fact that today was the day his beloved had died. But that was all right. He would meditate on that when he was alone, with her.

He got out of the limo and waved it off. Today he needed to be totally alone.

As he walked up the hill to Maddie's grave, he heard a woman cackle, "But you let them die, didn't you, Danny? You let them explode into little pieces…"

"Oooh, let me try, Spectra! He's so weak now I bet even I could do it!"

_Spectra?! _And apparently Danny was there too. No, no, this would not do. In a moment he had shifted to Plasmius and become invisible.

"Bertrand, do I have to send you for frappacinos for a third time? Now be a good little man and make sure no one's around. You nearly let that _Valerie_ girl catch us last time, and I will not be caught off-guard again!"

Well, with an invitation like _that_….

"Oh, really?" Plasmius purred, appearing behind her. The crooked therapist jumped and Bertrand's eyes widened. "I'll have to let Miss Grey know her ghost-sensing equipment needs to be fine-tuned."

Spectra merely smiled. "Oh, it's _you_. The college boy who never grew up. The man who wasted twenty years on a woman who was married, with _children_, and then tried to corrupt those children when he couldn't corrupt her. The freak who, despite having money and fame, still never got what he really wanted because he couldn't picture having anything else. Yes. I know _you_."

"You know _nothing_," Plasmius growled, and attacked. Spectra danced past the first blast, sambaed past the second. Plasmius growled again and split into four, each directing a beam at the woman…

…who dodged out the way, and all four beams hit Daniel, who didn't even move. When the smoke cleared it was obvious Daniel was bleeding ectoplasm in several places and there was a huge crater around him. Plasmius roared in anger and Spectra giggled.

"Look at me!" she laughed. "Nearly a teenager now, and more powerful than ever. Oh, the teenage angst, it give me youth—especially little Danny and cute Valerie—but you, your fears and your pain and betrayal and that glorious, ever denied desire—I haven't felt like this since I first died and sucked the emotions off of my living husband. Truly, how could a monster like you ever have expected love, true love? It would never have happened, not even if you had somehow managed to kill Jack, which you still managed to fail to do. It took _Danny_ to do that. Patricide, matricide, sororicide, and triple homicide all in one shot. Really, he _is_ a genius at killing things. Unlike you."

"_SHUT UP!" _roared Vlad, perfectly aware that Daniel could hear every word Spectra was saying. He fired more shots at the woman, who only laughed as she dodged, even if they hit. By now she was so powerful that even a blast from Plasmius wasn't enough to injure her. Or was he just that weak?

No! He couldn't allow her into his head. That was how her powers _worked_. He had to defend Daniel from this atrocity at all costs, get her away from here, do whatever he had to—

"Mr. Masters!" cried a new voice.

"Miss Grey," Plasmius grated. "I was wondering what was taking you so long."

"I'm sorry, the Box Ghost distracted me, but Dad told me there was a huge amount of activity and—whoa!" Valerie swooped as Bertrand attempted to knock her off her hoverboard. "Oh, I don't _think_ so!" she yelled, and in a moment the green shapeshifter was sucked into a thermos.

"Ah, and the red failure of a bodyguard returns," smiled Spectra. "You didn't even realize we were _here_, girl, guiding Danny, helping him realize just how badly he screwed up. All you did was make it worse, talking about your dead mother as though she _mattered_, although you probably made her want to die—"

"You—you—you—_you take that back right now you twisted freak of a ghost!"_ Valerie screamed, and charged. Spectra tried to dance away, but Plasmius didn't give her a chance, not this time, he was blocking her from four directions, keeping her well away from Daniel and the graves, and Valerie fired with the most powerful bazookas in her arsenal, and while it destroyed one of the duplicate Plasmiuses in the process it also blew a hole through Spectra's abdomen and she screamed as ectoplasm squirted everywhere, but Valerie showed no mercy and sucked the ghost into her thermos with a glare so full of righteous fury that Clockwork himself would have looked away in shame.

And with that the fight was over, and Valerie and Vlad had won.

Valerie landed next to her friend, who was still bleeding, and still not responding to any outside stimulus. Vlad did the same, and the two, without speaking, quietly repaired the damage to both the area around the graves and to Danny as best they could.

— — — — — —

The week passed.

Every day, the only difference was that Danny sat on a different grave. The first day, the day of Spectra's attack, he had sat on his parents', on his mother's side. The second, on his father's. The third, on his sister's. The fourth, on Tucker's. The fifth, on Sam's. The sixth, on Lancer's. Whenever human mourners were around he was invisible, but otherwise he did not acknowledge the existence of anything or anyone. Valerie had to work double time to pick up the slack, as word had spread that the Ghost Boy was incapacitated and was prime for the picking. Fortunately, she convinced all the ghosts this was a flagrant lie—or at least a truth they would pay dearly for investigating.

On the seventh day, the day of Danny's suicide, she didn't see Danny on any of the graves.

She did, however, see one of her ghost-guns missing.

_Oh god, oh god, oh god,_ she thought, searching her room in a panic. _This can't be anything to do with Danny. He hasn't left the cemetery in a week. So just because today's the day he died, and I'm missing a ghost gun that kills ghosts and he's a ghost now and that one's specifically designed to annihilate ghosts and he's been practically catatonic all week doesn't mean—oh, who am I kidding?!_

"Dad!" she screamed. "Dad! I can't find a ghost gun and today's That Day and I can't find Danny and—"

Damon peeked into her bedroom. "Honey, he's still in the cemetery. We've got a tracker specifically for him now, and remember, you put it on him three days ago. Why don't you bring the remote and—"

Too late. She was gone.

— — — — — —

"Danny! Danny!" Valerie screamed, even as she raced over the cemetery's gates. "Danny, please, don't resuicide or whatever! It's not worth it! Danny!"

She landed at his family plot, where his gravestone sat next to his sister's, and caught sight of him just as he turned invisible.

"Oh no you don't—Danny, you are _not_ going to kill yourself again! I refuse to let you!" She walked over to the grave until she was pretty sure if she wasn't standing by Danny she was standing _in_ him, and that had to annoy him. Sure enough he reappeared, and she found herself embedded in his chest. She grabbed his clammy hands and met his eyes for the first time in seven days. Neon green eyes stared back, just for a moment, before disappearing into their own private hell once again.

"Danny, you didn't take the ghost gun to…kill yourself, did you? Please, please tell me you didn't."

There was no answer. Valerie searched the area, just to be sure, and found nothing, to her relief. She wondered if he could have hidden it in the ground, though, and would just wait until she was gone before…

"If you did that, I'm just going to stay with you all day, and that's that," she said. "I can miss a day of class for this."

And with that she sat down beside him. Danny didn't respond, but he didn't disappear, either.

Valerie had actually fallen asleep when Vlad showed up. Not wanting to wake her, he simply lay some daisies on Daniel's grave. He still wasn't sure why he was doing it; he had never bothered to find out whether the boy liked any kind of flower or not, and technically the boy wasn't really dead in the final sense of the word. But it felt right to put flowers on his grave, even if Daniel was sitting vigil on it, Valerie at his side. Pausing for a moment, he sighed and sat down on Daniel's other side.

"Daniel…we may…have problems…but understand this: if only for your mother's sake, and even for your own…I _will_ protect and train you."

Daniel did not respond. But then, he did not push Vlad away, either.

And between the three there was peace.

— — — — — —

_Marisa's note: 8/29/12:_

_Well, we're back._

_This fic is going to be continued. Thank you guys very much for your supportive reviews over the years; you guys are the reason I remembered the story at all and kept pecking at the plot enough to get _Part Two: Ten Years_ started._

_See you guys soon!_


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